


Malec Family Life: How It All Started

by ChloeTheWarbler



Series: Malec Family Life [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), malec - Fandom
Genre: Alec is an oblivious little cutie, But she turns nice, Clary is not in this fic!, F/M, Izzy is a supportive sister, Jace doesn't know Alec is gay, M/M, Magnus doesn't know what subtlety is, Maryse Lightwood is a mean being, Neither is Simon, Raphael is a cute little friend to Magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-01-04 03:44:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloeTheWarbler/pseuds/ChloeTheWarbler
Summary: Hey guys! Now this is going to be my prequel to Malec Family Life, for those of you who wanted to see my take on how Malec came to be, then here it is. I had a few comments asking to see how Malec became who they were, and now that I have finished my main fic, I will be writing a prequel and a sequel. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as you did Malec Family Life! Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





	1. Convenient Introductions

Alec was stood in the weapon’s room of the Institute, shooting arrows at one of the targets, letting all of his frustrations out from the day he had had. Maryse had appeared from Idris and told him that she and his father were finding him a wife. It was probably Alec’s worst nightmare, being married to a woman and not even having his own say in the matter.  
  
Alec Lightwood was a tall, strong man of eighteen, he had grown into his teenage, awkward body and had filled out rather well. His black hair would flop down and cover his bright blue eyes, and that was the way he liked it; he felt like it kept him hidden from the universe. He had grown up in his younger siblings’ shadow, not being as pretty or as smart as Isabelle, and not being as skilled a soldier as Jace was, and being the eldest out of them was pretty embarrassing for him.  
  
Jace Herondale was the golden boy of the Lightwood clan, even though he had no Lightwood name and would not be allowed to become involved in serious family matters, Maryse would always torture Alec, telling him that Jace would always be the better Lightwood son. Whereas Izzy was perfect in their father’s eyes, not so much in their mother’s; she would constantly tell Isabelle that she needed to grow up and become the mature Shadowhunter that she was raised to be.  
  
This frustrated Alec to no end, sure his siblings were perfect in the eyes of Maryse and Robert, but they were not acting Head of the Institute. They were not allowed to go out on missions without authorisation from Alec, which at least gave him a little bit of power over them; not like it ever stopped Jace before if permission wasn’t granted.  
  
Earlier in the evening, they had received a tip off from an anonymous source, telling them that there would be some rogue Vampires invading the Pandemonium club that night. Alec sure as hell hoped that this was not a joke.  
  
“Hey Alec, you ready to go?” Jace announced as he flounced into the room, seraph blade in hand and a new iratze on his neck.  
  
“Yep. Ready. I just hope this isn’t a wind-up, coz if it is, there will be bloodshed, and all of it might not be Downworlders,” threatened Alec, practically growling to nobody in particular.  
  
“Come on buddy, it isn’t that bad. Being married to somebody is not as bad as mom and dad make it out to be,” Jace chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. Alec was not in the mood for laughing at the moment and had to resist the urge to punch his parabatai in the jaw.  
  
“I actually do really want to kill something right now, so I want to go as quick as possible,” he demanded, grabbing his bow and arrow and stalking past Jace, leaving his brother in his dust. “Izzy time to go!”  
  
******************************************************************  
  
After arriving at the Pandemonium club, the Nephilim realised it would be harder than they originally anticipated. The club was packed with Seelies, Vampires, a couple of Werewolves, even some mundanes! But how on earth would they be able to identify the _rogue_ Vampires?  
  
“Right let’s split up, Izzy and I will do one side of the club, Alec do the other?” Jace informed them, taking his sister into the club and into the gaggle of people. Alec just rolled his eyes after his siblings had left, he was always the one to go off on his own, he just hoped that the mission would be relatively straight forward.  
  
Alec stalked into Pandemonium, meeting up with Jace and Izzy at the dance floor, then splitting off, knowing that the hardest part of the mission would be avoiding mundanes. They all needed to make sure everybody was safe too, before apprehending the culprits. Alec was trying to push his way past a group of mundanes on the dance floor, taking to shoving and literally moving them out of his way.  
  
He found Jace and Izzy up ahead, talking to the sparkliest man he had ever seen. The man was a couple of inches shorter than him, wearing all sorts of make-up, the most flamboyant outfit, and he literally had heels on! But Alec moved all of that aside and found the man rather pretty, in a Downworlder sort of way. They guy was obviously a warlock, he had never seen any other creature dressed like that that lived in the Shadow World.  
  
“What do I owe the pleasure, Jace Herondale?” the man asked his parabatai sarcastically. Alec observed the guy and could see him looking his brother up and down, and Alec’s hopes were dashed, no wonder the warlock found Jace attractive, he was pretty much physically perfect.  
  
“How do you know-?” Jace started, when he heard Alec’s voice from behind him. Alec looked to find Jace now looking at him, and had found that the warlock was staring at him intently, looking to be observing him.  
  
Magnus’ heart skipped, he had found this man earlier and felt the need to pursue him, until he lost him in the crowd. Thinking he was a Seelie, due to his beauty, he now found that he was a Shadowhunter, a Nephilim. Magnus could now see the black runes against the man’s alabaster skin, the contrast of the pale skin and the dark marks almost blinding the warlock. He noticed the clumpy, yet elegant way he walked, as if trained to be a ninja that could pounce at a moment’s notice. However, Magnus noticed the bright blue eyes above anything else, the blue orbs shimmering in the club lights, standing out against his pale face. Magnus shot a wink to the archer and watched the man physically blush before him, he certainly was a half-angel, and Magnus wanted to see how far he could unravel him.  
  
“Who are you?” Magnus asked lustfully, a hint of flirting in his voice that made the man visibly shiver, Magnus noticed. “I am Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn. And you are?” The Nephilim stuttered slightly, becoming physically undone, and gave a goofy smile to the warlock.  
  
“A-A- Alec,” he replied with a smiled, his eyes suddenly sparkled and Magnus instantly wanted this man in some way or form. Magnus smiled a genuine smile at the man, he was about to conduct a full conversation with the beauty, when he was interrupted by Herondale.  
  
“We’re here on a mission Magnus, we heard that there were some rogue vampires around here; picking off mundanes. Know anything about it?” Jace asked the warlock. Magnus simply shrugged, when an idea popped into his head.  
  
“I will give you permission to hunt in my club, if...” he started, ready to strike a deal with the Shadowhunters. “If you stay here with me,” Magnus finished, flashing his cat eyes at Alec briefly and pointed a ringed finger at him. Alec barely had time to answer when his parabatai answered for him.  
  
“Done. Come on Izzy, the sooner we’re done here, the sooner we can save Alec,” Jace chortled, dragging the dark haired girl off with him; not even glancing at Alec on the way past. Alec could see a smirk on Jace’s face, and when they were out of the club, he was going to punch it off of him.  
  
“That was easy. I should have opened with that,” Magnus laughed, and led Alec to a leather sofa to the back of the club. Alec felt himself freeze when Magnus took a hold of his wrist, pulling him along with him. He knew he should be hunting vampires, but the warlock was too much to resist.  
  
“So, Alec, may I call you Alexander?” Magnus asked, pushing the half-angel down onto the couch and taking an extremely close seat next to him. Subtlety wasn’t Magnus’ strong point.  
  
“S-s-sure, but not many people do,” Alec told him, trying hard to get as relaxed as possible next to the sparkly man.  
  
“Well I am honoured to be one of the few then,” Magnus beamed, winking at the Shadowhunter. Alec flushed again, turning beet-red from the flirtatious action and wondering what this warlock’s angle was. As far as Alec knew, _nobody_ found Alec Lightwood attractive. “Care for a drink?” the man offered.  
  
“I can’t s-s-sorry, I’m on duty,” stuttered Alec, declining the offer politely. Magnus just grinned at him and with a snap of his finger, two martini glasses appeared in his hands. Alec was about to protest when Magnus silenced him with a finger to his lips.  
  
“Non-alcoholic, my dear,” Magnus told him, shoving the glass into the Shadowhunter’s rather large hands. Alec saw no reason to not believe the beautiful man, so took a sip. He had never had a magic martini before, and due to the taste of it, it wouldn’t be his last.  
  
“This is good,” Alec complimented, supping his drink quietly, while under the constant gaze of the warlock next to him.  
  
“I’m glad you like it. Now, tell me, what is your role at the Institute?” Magnus asked, intrigued to know more about the obviously shy Shadowhunter.  
  
“I’m acting Head of the Institute while my parents are in Idris,” Alec told him, the martini relaxing him a bit more, so was beginning to let his guard down slightly.  
  
“Your parents are Maryse and Robert Lightwood?” Magnus queried, he watched the man nod his head to say yes, and he inwardly groaned. _Why did this magnificent being have to be the spawn of those two?_ Magnus complained to himself.  
  
“You don’t like them do you?” Alec guessed, seeing the warlock’s response to his parentage. “Don’t worry, you’re not the only one,” Alec assured him.  
  
“You don’t like your parents either?” Magnus wondered.  
  
“Nope. Well not today at least. They want me to marry a woman who I don’t even know!” Alec grumbled, flailing his arms out and falling backwards so he was practically laid down on the couch. Magnus was confused, he was almost positive that this Nephilim was gay, he could practically smell it.  
  
“But I thought-”  
  
“Yeah, I am. They just don’t know yet,” Alec finished for him, resting his head on Magnus’ knee adorably. Magnus was surprised that Alexander was comfortable with this, however he did tell a tiny little lie when he told the Nephilim that the drink was non-alcoholic.  
  
“How are you drunk? You had one martini?” Magnus questioned, laughing down at the man, who was staring up at him with his blue eyes glazed over.  
  
“I don’t drink, plus you made it with magic; that could have been one thousand per cent alcohol,” exaggerated Alec, flinging himself up so he was now sat upright. Magnus did feel a little bit guilty, but was glad to see this cutesy side to this Nephilim. He had only known him an hour, but felt like they had been together for a lifetime.  
  
“Are you going to tell your parents about your sexuality?” asked Magnus, hoping that the answer would be yes.  
  
“Shh, we only just met!” Alec laughed, flopping down on his stomach so that his legs were draped over Magnus’ lap. Magnus realised his choice of words must have been mashed up in Alexander’s intoxicated mind, and found it positively adorable.  
  
“I think it’s time you went home, my love,” Magnus told him, standing up and holding Alec upright. Alec was resisting leaving the couch, but welcomed Magnus’ arms around him.  
  
“You’re really pretty, you know,” Alec said, smiling at Magnus from the side and putting almost all of his weight onto the warlock; thankfully Magnus was much stronger than he looked.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
They found Izzy and Jace stood near the back room, cleaning blood off of their seraph blades, and Izzy was rewinding her whip around her wrist. Jace looked up to find Alec nearly fast asleep on the warlock’s shoulder, and went absolutely furious.  
  
“By the Angel, what the hell did you do to him warlock?!” Jace shouted, taking Alec away from Magnus immediately.  
  
“Calm down Herondale, it’s not my fault the poor boy doesn’t drink. In my defence, I only gave him one” Magnus defended, smiling fondly at the drunken Shadowhunter, who was now poking Jace in the face in amusement. Jace looked like he was about to explode, when thankfully Isabelle stepped in.  
  
“Thank you for letting us carry out our mission in your club, and for keeping our brother company. Come on Alec, let’s get you home big brother,” Izzy thanked, helping Jace and grabbing one of Alec’s arms to balance him. Magnus was about to say something before they managed to move through the crowds quickly with Alexander in tow, Jace having activated some rune on his shoulder.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
“I can’t believe you let yourself get drunk Alec,” Jace scolded in disbelief, practically carrying his older brother between himself and Isabelle.  
  
“Oh don’t be so harsh Jace, at least he had fun,” Izzy reprimanded, laughing at Alec’s lack of being able to hold his alcohol.  
  
“I did have fun! Magnus is very fun! He made a magic drink and that was what I had! And then we talked about stuff and he was very fun then too! I like Magnus, he’s sparkly,” Alec enthused, waving his arms and staggering slightly, pulling free from his siblings’ hands. Izzy couldn’t help but laugh, and even Jace cracked a smile. It was a nice change to see the usual stubborn, rule abiding Shadowhunter let go a little.  
  
“You like Magnus huh?” Izzy teased, poking her brother in the side, making him almost giggle.  
  
“Yes I like him very much. He’s fun and sparkly and glittery and very, very, very pretty and magical!” answered Alec, running through Central Park like a child. Izzy and Jace decided to take the longer way home, hoping some of Alec’s intoxication would wear off in the cold air.  
  
“Why would he think Magnus is pretty?” Jace questioned, thinking over his parabatai’s words. Izzy hesitated to speak, before they heard an “oof” and ran to Alec who had face-planted the floor clumsily and was struggling to get up.  
  
“Come on big brother, bed when we get in I think,” Isabelle told Alec, picking him up off of the floor and getting Jace to help; luckily they were only now a few feet away from the Institute.  
  
The three Shadowhunter’s walked into the Institute, well Izzy and Jace walked, Alec was more like being dragged along.  Coming out of the lift, they were met face to face with Maryse Lightwood, her arms crossed and eyebrows raised.  
  
“What the hell happened to Alec?!”


	2. To See You Again

It had been over a month since Alec had woken up with the hangover to end all hangovers. He was ashamed of the way he acted and the way he let his guard down to a complete stranger; however pretty he may be. And now Alec felt guilty for avoiding the warlock. Magnus had tried to contact him many times since their first meeting, and Alec was doing anything in his almighty Shadowhuntery power to avoid him. He even went to Idris on a day trip because Magnus had to come and re-cast the wards again!  
  
But there was no getting out of today. Alec was still the acting Head of the Institute until his parents returned from Mumbai, and he had to engage in a Downworlder meeting. Since the uprising with Valentine had started, more and more Downworlders were either deferring to his side, or going into hiding; and Alec couldn’t have that. To fight against Valentine, they had to remain united in everything they did.  
  
Alec and Isabelle were stood at the entrance to the Institute, ready to invite all of the representatives in. There was Meliorn, from the Seelies. And Raphael from the Vampires. An alpha Alec had never met before, for the Werewolves; and last but not least, Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn, for the Children of Lilith. And Alec was not looking forward to it one bit.  
  
Ever since Magnus flounced into his life with his sparkly disposition and flamboyant outfits and gravity defying hair, he could not stop thinking about him. Which was a disaster for everybody involved. Jace and Isabelle kept teasing him about the night he was drunk, shouting around Brooklyn that Magnus Bane was the prettiest, most sparkliest person ever.  
  
Raphael Santiago was the first one in, a brisk nod at the Shadowhunter’s, Isabelle showed him through. The next was Meliorn and the werewolf alpha, Lucien Greymark, a once Shadowhunter turned werewolf, who turned up one after the other. The remaining representative was Magnus, who was now late. And Alec was losing his patience.  
  
It was twenty minutes after the meeting should have started when Magnus appeared.  
  
“You are late Mr Bane,” Alec announced, not making eye contact with the warlock.  
  
“Fashionably late, actually, Mr Lightwood,” Magnus corrected sarcastically. Alec had to admit that he looked good today; a deep maroon, silk shirt, tight black jeans and boots laced up to his knees. He had red streaks running through his chestnut hair, and glitter laced around his eyes and down his cheek bones.  
  
“Well late is late, fashionably or no,” Alec reprimanded, finally making eye contact with the man. His bright blue eyes met yellow cat slits, and he stepped back suddenly, not expecting the warlock mark to appear. “Woah, they’re amazing!” Alec exclaimed, examining the eyes carefully. Magnus looked taken aback, nobody had ever complimented his eyes before.  
  
“Thank you, Alexander. Now take me to where you need me, and that is not an excuse to take me to your bedroom,” he winked, chuckling at Alec’s bright red face. Magnus strutted past him, leaving Alec gaping in his wake.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
The meeting went off without a hitch, after Magnus arrived that is. Alec left as quickly as he could and went to train in the weapon’s room, wanting to let off some steam. By hitting the shit out of the punching bag, it relaxed Alec on another level, and after seeing Magnus for the first time in a month, he needed to let his frustrations out on something.  
  
Alec stripped off his shirt and changed into some jogging bottoms, ready to work out and sweat out his anger at his parents, at Magnus and most importantly, himself.  
  
After about half an hour of intense beating of the punch bag, Alec was sore and tired, sweat dripping down his bare chest and almost creating a pool around his feet. He couldn’t describe how amazing it felt to just let out his frustrations without actually injuring anyone. With Alec’s back turned to the door, he didn’t see Magnus come in, mouth wide and pupils blown.  
  
“Well hello Mr Shadowhunter,” Magnus smirked, raking his eyes up and down Alec’s sweaty body. Alec almost jumped in fright at hearing Magnus’ voice, and turned to face him, blushing from head to toe at the other man just staring at him.  
  
“Magnus,” Alec acknowledged, and quickly went to the couch where he had discarded his shirt.  
  
“No need to get dressed up Alexander,” the warlock winked, slightly disappointed when Alec resumed to place his shirt over his head.  “Oh, well I liked what I saw.” Alec just shook his head at the man and went and grabbed a towel to dry his face.  
  
“You know subtlety isn’t your strong point?” Alec told him, face completely barren of expression.  
  
“Yes, after all my years I still haven’t managed to perfect the art. But why would I want to be subtle around you hm?” Magnus laughed, taking his hand and scratching his head with a finger, as if thinking about it.  
  
“Whatever. Did you want something?” the Nephilim asked, a bit more politely.  
  
“I wanted to come and ask you if you wanted to go out for a drink sometime? Perhaps tonight?” the glittery man wondered, with a hopeful look on his face. Alec considered this and reminisced after what happened the last time he had a drink with this man.  
  
“No thank you, not after last time,” Alec declined, grimacing at the thought of his drunken state from the morning after and the stories Jace and Izzy told him.  
  
“I will not give you alcohol, I swear,” Magnus promised, holding a hand to his heart. Alec still continued to shake his head, refusing to give into the beautiful man before him. “Fine, how about Taki’s?”  
  
“Mmm. Yes okay, I could go for food. As long as you’re paying right?” Alec chuckled, not expecting the answer he received,  
  
“Of course, a gentleman always pays on the first date,” Magnus replied, almost not even realising what he had implied.  
  
“This is a date?”  
  
“Perhaps not. Not if you don’t want to call it a date,” the warlock compromised, not wanting to rush into anything with the Shadowhunter, knowing completely that he didn’t want to mess up anything with him; especially since after their first meeting.  
  
“Let me get showered and changed. And… you can call it a date if you’d like,” Alec smiled, loving the beaming grin he got off Magnus. “Er, my room’s upstairs if you want to wait there?”  
  
“Sure, lead the way…”  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Magnus Bane was proud to say that he was in Alexander Lightwood’s room, without using magic or his art of seduction (well not completely, anyway) to get there. Alec was in the shower, washing away the grime and dirt of the day and Magnus was just wandering around his room, observing the little trinkets and decorations that made Alec’s room so Alec. Magnus even took to laying out some clothes for him on the bed, knowing they would suit the Shadowhunter well.  
  
The warlock had to refrain himself from entering the bathroom upon hearing the water turning on, knowing full well his prey was naked in the next room over. He knew he shouldn’t call Alexander prey, but it was how he felt; a tiger stalking the one he desired most, albeit a very sparkly tiger.  
  
Magnus could hear the water turn off and realised that Alec had left his towel on his bed. The warlock didn’t know what to do, he knew Alec would ask him for the towel either way, by walking out into the bedroom in the nude, which he didn’t expect him to do, or by keeping his body behind the door while shouting through to Magnus for it.  
  
“Shit. Magnus!” Alec shouted through the wall.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Could you pass me the towel I left on the bed please?” Magnus was more than happy to oblige and immediately scooped up the towel and headed into the bathroom- “Woah!” Alec yelled, almost falling into the shower to use the curtain.  
  
“Believe me Alexander, I have seen a naked man before,” Magnus winked, holding the towel out for the bashful Nephilim.  
  
“Well you’ve never seen me naked before,” Alec protested, snatching the towel out of the warlock’s hands and wrapping it around himself.  
  
“We could soon change that you know?” the warlock offered, chortling away to himself, to the dismay of Alec.  
  
“By the Angel,” Magnus heard Alexander mutter, and watched him climb out from behind the shower, towel now wrapped firmly around his waist. “Why are you staring at me?”  
  
It was true, Magnus was staring at the Shadowhunter, almost naked before him. The black-haired man was actually stunning. His pale skin and his dark black runes that littered his body here and there. The way his deflect rune ran from near his ear to the base of his neck, Magnus felt the need to nuzzle his head in there and hide away from the world around him.  
  
“I have seen a lot, and by that I mean a lot of naked men my dear, but your beauty doesn’t even compare. You are the epitome of perfection,” Magnus praised, licking his dry lips and staring into the Nephilim’s blue oceans of Alec’s eyes.  
  
“Yeah right,” Alec mumbled, blushing so much that his chest was even tinging pink. Magnus wanted to tell the man to be quiet and just accept the compliment, but could see in the man’s eyes that he couldn’t- Alec’s self-esteem was shown in the way he turned his head slightly away from Magnus’ gaze and the way he stared down at the floor.  
  
“Anyway,” Magnus coughed, “I have laid you some clothes out, if that’s okay? And I will meet you downstairs.” And with that, the warlock swept himself away from the bathroom and into Alec’s room.  
  
Alec made his way into his bedroom to find it bare of Magnus, but chuckled to himself at the ensemble the man had picked out for him. _As if he even went through my underwear drawer,_ Alec thought in amusement, getting himself quickly dressed, actually eager to get downstairs and meet the warlock; hopefully putting their first meeting behind them.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec could feel Magnus’ gaze on him since the moment they left the Institute, walking down the dark streets of Brooklyn. The sun had set a while ago now, and all of Brooklyn was illuminated, either by street lights or cars. Alec enjoyed walking the city at night, being hit with the cool air and the ongoing need to be walking close to somebody so to share their body heat. Alec’s exterior was stony and cold, without a hint of love to be shared; however underneath all that, Magnus could see him opening up to him ever so slightly, gradually making his way into the Shadowhunter’s small space for the people that mattered.  
  
“It’s so cold tonight,” Magnus announced, after a couple of blocks walked in comfortable silence.  
  
“Yeah, winter will be here soon,” Alec replied, agreeing with the warlock’s statement of the weather.  
  
“How is it going at the Institute? You know with Valentine?” Magnus queried, already having agreed to help the Nephilim if and whenever he can.  
  
“We’re getting there, it does get a bit hectic sometimes. But with Jace being the Inquisitor’s grandson, we don’t have it too hard. She doesn’t like me though, with Jace renouncing his title of Head of the Institute to me,” Alec answered, rubbing his neck with the back of his hand.  
  
“Imogen Herondale… haven’t seen her in a while,” Magnus said, drifting off into thought of the proclaimed Inquisitor he had the misfortune to meet on more than one occasion.  
  
“How old are you exactly?” Alec asked, hoping not to offend the warlock, only being curious. Magnus just chuckled and shook his head.  
  
“I am old, but probably not as old as you think I am. Put it this way, I have looked twenty-five for a long time. Comes in handy though, if you know what I mean,” Magnus winked, rocking his arm into the Shadowhunter’s side. Magnus was pleased to see he had actually made the Nephilim smile, and he called that progress.  
  
They had reached Taki’s, just before the rain started. Alec got worried when the reached the corner of the street that the cafe was on, hearing the thunder clouds starting to rumble. The inside of Taki’s was pleasant and warm, full to the brim with Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and even the occasional mundane. Alec spotted Maia from the doorway and gave her a wave, while following Magnus to an empty table for two.  
  
“Tell you what, we just missed that downpour,” Magnus pointed out, turning his gaze from Alec to the rain outside that was stamping on the windows on the cafe. Alec couldn’t help but agree with him, if they had gotten sodden through with rain, that would have been an awkward situation, sitting in the cafe soaked to their skins was something Alec didn’t want to think about.  
  
Alec grabbed a menu and begin scouring, already knowing what he wanted but only did it out of politeness to Magnus. Whenever Alec came here, he had his usuals. For breakfast: strawberry waffles or pancakes, for lunch: a bacon cheeseburger, and for dinner: a huge plate of lasagna. Izzy often compared him to the mundane cartoon cat called Garfield who apparently had lasagna with everything.  
  
“What looks good?” Magnus asked, after some deliberation of all the different foods on offer, even considering some of the Seelie dishes.  
  
“The lasagna for me, what about you?” Alec replied, watching Magnus’ eyes grow with the new knowledge he had just obtained.  
  
“I think I’m going to have a steak,” Magnus asked, collaring Maia who was stood behind the counter.  
  
“Hey Alec. And Alec’s friend,” Maia greeted, smiling down at her favourite Shadowhunter and the sparkly man with him.  
  
“I’m Magnus my dear. Could we please have a steak, medium rare, and a lasagna?” Magnus said, placing down his menu and observing the girl. He saw that the dark-skinned waitress was a werewolf, due to the huge claw scars on her neck; altogether she was extremely pretty, and Magnus wondered who she was.  
  
“Sure thing. Drinks?”  
  
“A Coke for me thanks,” Alec answered with a smile. He chanced a glance towards Magnus, silently hoping that the man didn’t order any alcoholic based drink.  
  
“A lemonade for me,” Magnus grinned, noticing Alexander’s release of breath with the order. Maia nodded and took off towards the counter, placing the order in with the kitchen.  
  
“How do you know the waitress?” Magnus questioned with curiosity, wanting to know as much as he could about the Nephilim.  
  
“Helped her when she first turned, she found Luke but the Alpha at the time rejected her, so we housed her at the Institute until Luke took her in after he killed the previous Alpha,” Alec explained, taking a sip of his drink when it arrived. Magnus twirled the straw around his tongue, just playing with it and watched Alec with awe as he delved into his life, telling stories from here and there, and this time and that time, just really letting go and telling Magnus more about himself.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
With the food consumed and paid for, both Alec and Magnus left Taki’s with full stomachs and aching faces from laughing and smiling so much. The rain had stopped for a time, and Alec hoped he could get Magnus home before it all started again. Magnus’ heart swelled when the Shadowhunter offered to escort him home safely, finding himself becoming more and more besotted with the half-angel as the night went on.  
  
They were chuckling about everything and nothing when the thunder started again, making Alec jump slightly.  
  
“Oh shit. We’d better run!” Alec shouted, grabbing Magnus’ hand absent-mindedly and running off with him in tow down the street, with Magnus just laughing behind him.  
  
“My apartment is just down the street. Turn left,” he informed him, feeling the water dripping into his hair and down his face, smearing his fabulous and immaculately done make-up.  
  
They reached Magnus’ apartment, both now dripping wet and frozen to the bone. Magnus laughed at the way that Alec shook his hair when entering the building, spraying water all of the warlock adorably.  
  
“Trust us to get caught in the rain,” Alec complained, shrugging his wet jacket off and placing it on the coat stand. Alec took in the surroundings of Magnus’ apartment, it was a modern place with wood and carpet on the floors, gold, purple and red drapes hanging around the windows, and a variety of couches and lounge chairs in the living area.  
  
“I know,” Magnus chuckled. “Fancy a hot chocolate?”  
  
“I would love a hot chocolate, thank you,” Alec accepted, going to sit down and make himself comfortable. With a click of his fingers, Magnus made two hot chocolates appear, both topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and marshmallows, steaming from the mugs they came in. Magnus also flourished his hand, and wrapped a heated blanket around the man on the couch and a towel on his head for his hair.  
  
“Thanks,” the Shadowhunter chuckled, rubbing his damp hair with the towel and making himself cosy under the warm blanket. He took the mug of hot drink graciously and sipped down the hot liquid, moaning as it slid down his throat, warming him from the inside out. Magnus took a seat next to the wrapped up Shadowhunter and cuddled into him, not even considering whether Alec would feel comfortable or not. However, Alec felt extremely comfortable and even cuddled back, loving the feeling of Magnus’ body in contact with his.  
  
“Why did you ask to go out with me tonight?” Alec asked, blurting it out into the comfortable silence, breaking it.  
  
“Because I wanted to see you again,” Magnus replied, looking up at Alec, losing himself in the orbs of blue of the man next to him.  
  
“But why? I went out of my way to avoid you for a month! How could you want to go out with me?”  
  
“That night was completely my fault, I shouldn’t have lied to you about the drink being non-alcoholic, and I especially shouldn’t have given you a magic-made drink with not having had one before. But after seeing you being carried off by your siblings, I hated the way I felt, and the vulnerable way I made you. Anybody could have done anything to you,” Magnus explained, his face dropping and avoiding eye contact with the Nephilim.  
  
“You don’t-”  
  
“Yes I do. Alexander, putting it simply; you unlocked something in me. I wanted to get to know the sober version of you, the version that wanted to willingly be with me, not because of a deal I strike with your brother,” the warlock continued. Alec smiled down at Magnus and did something completely un-Alec-ish and kissed him on the forehead. Alec instantaneously blushed, along with Magnus.  
  
“I’m s-s-sorry,” Alec stuttered, trying to apologise profusely about his actions, when Magnus kissed his lips gently, sufficiently shutting up. They kissed for a moment, but Alec felt as if it was forever.  
  
“That was a really nice way of telling me to shut up,” Alec chuckled, pulling away from the warlock. Magnus couldn’t help but cracking up, and just had a laughter break down on the couch, Alexander soon joining in.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Both men soon recovered and Alec dried off enough, with help of the blanket, towel and of course; the magic hot chocolate.  
  
“The rain is still coming down hard,” Magnus told him from staring out of the window, mixing a martini for himself.  
  
“Oh God. Not fancying that walk home now,” Alec groaned from the couch, half-watching some stupid mundane film about some mean girls.  
  
“Don’t be stupid, you can stay here tonight,” Magnus declared, intentionally avoiding telling the Nephilim about the fact that he could just make a portal for him.  
  
“I can’t stay here, everyone will go mental-” Alec started.  
  
“Send them a fire message? Come on Alexander it is throwing it down outside. I refuse to send you out in this diabolical weather, it would be cruel,” Magnus declared, crossing his arms with a determined raised brow. Alec couldn’t really argue with the warlock on this, and he desperately didn’t want to go out in the rain.  
  
“Fine. I’ll stay, can I stay on the couch?” Alec conceded, smiling at Magnus’ smirking face.  
  
“Well I was going to ask you to join me in bed,” Magnus started with a wink. “But I suppose you would rather not?” Alec’s face went beet red for a second, quite tempted to take the warlock’s offer, but decided against it.  
  
“As much as I am tempted, no thank you Magnus. But I appreciate you letting me stay,” Alec thanked, grateful for the sparkly man’s hospitality.  
  
“Okay then Mr Lightwood. I am retiring to my bed, but please, make yourself comfortable. And thank you for making my night thoroughly enjoyable,” and with that, Magnus took off through the loft leaving Alec grinning on the couch, cuddling into the pillows with the heated blanket over him.  
  
Alec wouldn’t admit it, but he loved the smell of Magnus enveloped around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, a longer chapter here yay! And two updates in two days, aren't you lucky ;) I am so happy with the response I received for the first chapter, that I can't not keep writing this fic, and I am happy that everybody is enjoying it. Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	3. I Don't Know How To Say It

It had been two weeks since Alec stayed at Magnus’. He woke up the next morning with a smile on his face, and waffles on the table in front of him that Magnus had magicked up. It felt so domestic and happy that Alec felt like he could get used to the feeling of waking up in Magnus’ apartment everyday. Since then they had been on a few dates and everything was going swimmingly…  
  
Alec made his way into the surveillance room of the Institute to hear arguing. He found Isabelle and their mother having a shouting match in the middle of the Institute for all to hear.  
  
“What the Angel is going on here?” Alec asked, walking up to the pair of screaming women.  
  
“Ah Alec, I’m glad you’re up now. An envoy from the Clave is coming to visit today,” Maryse told him, turning her back on Izzy who was huffing with her arms crossed.  
  
“And you’re screaming about it because-?”  
  
“Because Mom is going to make you marry her,” Isabelle finished before Maryse could get a word in edge-ways. Alec’s mouth dropped open, glaring at Maryse with a look that could kill.  
  
“You need a wife Alec, you have known this for a while now,” Maryse carried on, now completely ignoring her daughter and focusing on her eldest son.  
  
“No way am I getting married,” Alec refused, having now folded his own arms across his chest with his brow raised.  
  
“You are getting married because I say so!” Maryse snapped. “The Lightwood name needs to carry on, and since Jace is biologically a Herondale, and Max being only eleven, we need you to carry it on.”  
  
“I don’t care. I will not get married,” he declared, storming away from his mother in a huff. He knew he should really tell her about his relationship with Magnus, but he didn’t want to drag the warlock into all of it, it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t tell his domineering mother that he was gay.  
  
Alec raged through to his office, punched a wall, and went to call Magnus. He really needed him right now.  
  
_“Hello Alexander.”_  
  
“Hey Mags, are you busy?” Alec asked hopefully, just needing to see the sparkly man.  
  
_“I’m never busy for you, my angel. What can I do for you?”_ Magnus chimed through the phone, making Alec sigh in relief.  
  
“Could you come to the Institute? I need you,” Alec confessed, feeling a single tear slide down his face. He wasn’t crying because he was upset, he was crying because he was angry at his mother.  
  
_“I’ll be right over.”_  
  
And with that, the phone hung up and the next thing Alec knew, Magnus had portalled himself into Alec’s office. Magnus swept the room once and found his Shadowhunter leaned on his desk, waiting for him.  
  
“Magnus,” Alec began, before being wrapped up in the warlock’s strong arms. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“What are you sorry for Alexander?” the warlock asked, caressing Alec’s face gently and swiping his hair away from his blue eyes.  
  
“My mom, she said that the woman I have to marry is coming today. I thought she’d stopped with all of this,” Alec sobbed, burying himself into the warlock’s neck. Magnus could feel his collar starting to dampen with the Nephilim’s tears, and grew angry with Maryse.  
  
“Leave it to me, my love. The only person I have an intention of you marrying is me. I will not let her do this to you,” Magnus admitted, kissing Alec’s damp cheek and leaving the room in a hurricane of glitter. Alec instantly ran after Magnus, in hopes of him not blowing up his mother.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
“Maryse Lightwood!” Alec heard Magnus shout from the weapon’s room, obviously finding his mother in there.  
  
“What do you want Mr Bane?” she questioned indignantly. “As far as I am concerned, you were not requested here.”  
  
“Who gives a damn about what you’re concerned with? Why are you making your son marry a woman?” Magnus growled viciously. Alec was about to enter, but thought better against it; so watched from the window on the door.  
  
“Who do you think he’s going to marry? A man? And I don’t see what any business it is of yours to question my family?!” she shouted, obviously still unaware that the warlock before her has feelings for her son.  
  
“It is my business because he is my concern! You don’t deserve your son, in fact, you don’t deserve any of your children, because they are all incredible without you,” Magnus started, making Maryse’s jaw drop suddenly. “You have no right to dictate your son’s future. Alec is an unbelievable man, and he can make his own decisions about he wants to be with-”  
  
“You see warlock, that is where you’re wrong. Alec is not a man, he is still a boy. So as a mother, it is my duty to help him along his way,” Maryse interrupted, looking as if she were about to explode. Maryse then did the most unacceptable thing and grabbed a seraph blade, pointing it towards Magnus. Alec stormed through and stood in front of the warlock bravely.  
  
“Put the blade down Mother!” Alec commanded, feeling a surge of protection and possessiveness for Magnus.  
  
“What is the meaning of this?!” Maryse yelled, still armed with the seraph blade.  
  
“Leave Magnus out of this, he hasn’t done anything wrong!” the Shadowhunter argued. “Mother, I’m-”  
  
“Mrs Lightwood! The envoy has arrived!” Duncan shouted through the door, cutting off Alec’s words.  
  
“I will deal with you later,” she spat, throwing down the seraph blade and storming out after the young Shadowhunter. Alec and Magnus just stared at each other for a moment, before Alec enveloped Magnus in a tight hug.  
  
“What made you do that?” Magnus asked, half-scolding him, half in awe of him. Alec gave out a wet chuckle and pulled away from the warlock.  
  
“I dunno. My Shadowhunter instincts I guess? I knew that I needed to protect you, and my body just kind of went with it,” the Nephilim told him, his face blushing.  
  
As Alec went to go and place the seraph blade back, Magnus grabbed a hold of Alec’s arm and pulled him toward him. Magnus met Alec’ lips in a meeting of passion, kissing him with heat and power.  
  
“What was that for?” Alec asked with a goofy smile as they both separated after a while.  
  
“Just coz,” Magnus chuckled, kissing the Shadowhunter again gently and smiling at him. Alec rubbed his neck with the back of his hand and laughed nervously, Magnus had learned to realise that this action was one of nervousness or awkwardness; he decided that it was the former.  
  
“I think I’d better go and meet this envoy. You coming so we can judge her together?” Alec asked, offering his hand to the warlock.  
  
“Do you even need to ask?” chuckled Magnus, taking his angel’s hand confidently and left the weapon’s room with their heads held high.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
The warlock and the Shadowhunter found Maryse and Jace talking to a blond- haired woman that Alec had never seen before. She was quite small in height and stature, not really looking like a Shadowhunter at all, except the arrogant way she held herself and the black runes tattooed into her skin.  
  
“Alec, this is Lydia Branwell. The envoy from the Clave,” Maryse introduced, almost as if she forgot about the incident that had just happened not less than ten minutes ago. Alec knew this side of his mother, it was the side that she reserved for the Clave, as if she was in control of everything and that she did it with a smile on her face.  
  
“Nice to meet you Miss Branwell,” Alec greeted politely. He offered a smile to the young woman and she reciprocated enthusiastically; however Alec did not like the way that she was glaring at Magnus. “This is Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn. He is a personal friend of the Institute,” Alec added, wanting to irritate his mother and include Magnus at the same time.  
  
“It is great to meet you Mr Lightwood, and Mr Bane. Our ancestors go way back,” Lydia replied to the men, catching eyes with Magnus.  
  
“Yes, I remember Henry. An incredible man, with a brilliant mind,” Magnus answered with a smile, as if recalling happy memories with the man he once knew. Lydia actually grinned at this telling and tried to start a conversation with Alec.  
  
“So Mr Lightwood, what is it like being acting Head of the Institute?” Lydia asked him politely, blanking out Maryse so much that she walked away with Jace at her heels.  
  
“It is good, and I enjoy it-” Alec started, before Lydia cut him off.  
  
“I only asked that so your mother would leave. As much as I like Maryse, she can be a pain,” Lydia admitted with a smirk. “I was wondering why you are marrying me when you are clearly in a relationship?” she continued, gesturing to Alec and Magnus.  
  
“Er- we’re not-” Magnus started, relinquishing grip of Alec’s hand that he hadn’t realised he was still holding.  
  
“My mother doesn’t know yet. And besides, she expects me to uphold my duty as a Lightwood to carry on the family name,” Alec explained, hating the feeling of Magnus’ hand leaving his own.  
  
“Well, that does sound like a ‘Maryse thing’ to say. So I will marry you out of favour to you, not your mother. And Magnus can… still be Magnus,” Lydia told them with a smile, liking the feeling of irritating Maryse in keeping the warlock around. “But you will have to be careful, because as soon as that marriage rune is on, the rune knows,” she warned, hinting at what could happen.  
  
Magnus didn’t know what to say in this situation; he didn’t want Alec getting married to her either way! Whether it be duty to the family or Shadowhunters, he didn’t give a shit. He wanted Alec to himself, and the thought of him being with a someone else sickened him.  
  
“Excuse me,” Magnus pardoned, walking away from the two Shadowhunters without a second glance.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Magnus made his way to Alexander’s office, trying to stop himself from releasing rage magic, which was never good for anybody involved. He hated Maryse for making Alec do this, he didn’t like that Lydia girl for her involvement in it all, and he was annoyed at Alec for going along with it. The warlock knew the Nephilim wanted to please his parents, but not by making himself unhappy to do it. Magnus was torn with the emotions he was feeling. On one hand, he knew deep down that he wanted to be with Alec more than anything, he knew they hadn’t labelled their relationship yet, but he knew he wanted Alec to be his. But on the other hand, he felt like Alec should be with somebody of his own breeding, a Shadowhunter who could give him what he wants and needs. Magnus was also taking the selfish route, that Alec would just break his heart when he died anyway. Magnus was just so confused.  
  
“Hey, how come you disappeared on me?” Alec asked, entering his office and find the warlock there.  
  
“I needed some air,” Magnus replied snappily, not being able to contain his annoyance with the Shadowhunter.  
  
“Okay, what have I done?” the Shadowhunter questioned, realising pretty quickly that Magnus was annoyed with him.  
  
“Just- I hate the fact that you are still marrying her,” the warlock admitted, meeting Alec’s gaze with his yellow eyes, pupils slitted.  
  
“I have too Magnus, I’m still a Shadowhunter that has to carry out my duty,” Alec argued, wondering why Magnus was being irrational all of a sudden.  
  
“Duty? That is all you Shadowhunters care about. Duty. Well fuck duty! You don’t know Lydia, you don’t know whether she and your mother are planning things behind your back! I don’t trust Maryse. And for what I have just met of Lydia, sure she looks sweet and innocent, but she could soon turn out to be a manipulative bitch that breaks your heart and breaks you down!” Magnus yelled, breaking out into a mass of sobbing and anger. Alec wanted nothing more than to wrap this warlock up into his arms and tell him everything was going to be okay.  
  
“I know this is about Camille, Mags. But Lydia isn’t her, she is actually willing to marry me to get my mom off my back, so that we can still be together. Don’t you understand that?” Alec reassured, stepping towards him to touch his hand. When Magnus flinched away, he turned his back to the Shadowhunter.  
  
“I didn’t know what Camille was either, until she broke me. Don’t you get that I don’t want you going through that? That I don’t want you to marry her?” the warlock cried, his make-up running down his cheeks in black tears.  
  
“I get it Magnus, I really do. And I know you don’t want me marrying her-”  
  
“No! You don’t. You think you get it but you don’t! I haven’t felt this way about anyone for over a century, and now you’re leaving me before we have even started! I don’t know why I do this to myself,” Magnus wept, cutting the Nephilim off. Alec could feel his own tears forming, he went up to the warlock and wrapped his arms around him, one arm around his chest, and the other around his waist. He didn’t know why, but he began to kiss Magnus’ neck, and he pulled the shiny man up against his chest.  
  
“I understand baby, I don’t particularly want to get married either, but it’s just the way it is until I can sort something out. I am sorry that I upset you, and know you probably hate me right now-” Alec whispered, still kissing Magnus’ neck and rubbing his hand over the warlock’s heart.  
  
“You just called me baby,” the warlock chimed in, turning his head to give a small smile to the Shadowhunter. “And I don’t hate you Alexander, that is the worst part about all of this. I love you.” Alec stopped for a minute, registering Magnus’ words to him, and felt a huge smile break out onto his face.  
  
Alec turned the warlock around and kissed him hard, putting in all his emotions of the day into the kiss. Magnus took his hand and put it around Alec’s neck, pulling him closer and closer, slipping his tongue into the Shadowhunter’s mouth and just wishing he could stay there forever. Alec welcomed Magnus’ tongue and fought it with his own, until neither man could breathe anymore.  
  
“I love you too,” Alec whispered, kissing Magnus once more with a smile, his blue eyes shining into the cat eyes of the man before him.  
  
Alec was so happy that this beautiful warlock in front of him loved him for who he was, and Alec was never letting him go… if he could help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, cute chapter with a splash of tension here, but I had too because as much as I love my babies, they do have arguments and obviously Maryse is Maryse. Anyways, hope you guys liked this chapter, please comment and leave kudos; oh and it's my birthday tomorrow so please be generous and kind to me ;) Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	4. Be Okay

Alec woke up to the sounds of shouting outside of his room. He crawled out of bed in some joggers and a t-shirt and opened the door, to find Isabelle and Lydia arguing.   
  
“What?-”   
  
“Alec! She is actually insane! I woke up this morning to Duncan holding a wedding dress that had been delivered! She ordered a wedding dress already! Who even does that?” Izzy argued, flailing her arms around, ready to jump on top of Lydia and stab her… multiple times.   
  
“I ordered a wedding dress because our wedding is four days away. Or do you not understand that?” Lydia pointed out, one arm on her hip, her eyebrows raised at the dark haired Shadowhunter.  
  
“This wedding has not been approved,” Izzy started, now ignoring Alec who was trying to butt in where he could.  
  
“By who?” the blond asked in disbelief, rolling her eyes.   
  
“By me! And Alec! He has been forced into this!” Alec just rolled his eyes in a sigh and shut the door on the girls, wanting some peace and quiet already, and it was only nine in the morning.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec decided that since he was now awake, he would get dressed and go to the surveillance room for his mission schedule for the day. But when he got there, there was nothing waiting for him.   
  
“Hey Duncan. Where are all my missions?” Alec asked his fellow Shadowhunter, who seemed to know everything that went on around the Institute.  
  
“Maryse wanted Jace to have your schedule today. I obviously didn’t question it because I value my balls,” the man chuckled. “I take it you didn’t know about it?”   
  
“Nope. But I’m gonna find out why,” Alec told him, storming off on the warpath for his mother.  
  
Alec found Maryse in her office. It looked like she was in a debate with Lydia already. First Izzy, now his mom.   
  
“Why did you give Jace my missions?” Alec questioned the woman, glaring at her. He gave a small smile to Lydia, and she returned it happily.   
  
“I’m giving you the rest of the week off. Both of you. To prepare for the wedding,” Maryse said cheerfully, beaming at the two young adults in front of her.   
  
“Not that I’m not grateful Mother, but I’d much rather be doing my job,” he told her, rolling his eyes at Maryse.  
  
“Why ever would you prefer hunting demons to planning a wedding? Weddings are joyous occasions Alec. Enjoy it while it lasts!” the older woman cheered. Alec stared at his mother in disbelief.  
  
“Who are you and what have you done with my mother?” he asked, his blue eyes scanning over the woman in front of him.  
  
“She’s only being nice Alec,” Lydia butted in. “You have the day off, it will do you good. Maybe you could go and see Magnus or something?” she said slyly. Alec kind of caught on to her drift and played along.  
  
“Yes, I think I might just do that. I haven’t seen _Magnus_ in a while,” he emphasised, trying to catch his mother off guard.   
  
“That sounds wonderful my dear! You go have fun with Magnus-” Alec de-glamoured his bow on his back, and notched an arrow into it.   
  
“Who the hell are you?” Alec demanded, pointing the arrow at the person impersonating his mother. To Alec and Lydia’s shock, Maryse fizzled away to reveal a man in his late forties, with little hair, dark eyes and a broad body. Alec could see his runes on his arms to reveal that he was a Shadowhunter, but he really didn’t like the red Circle rune on the base of his neck.  
  
“Well done little Lightwood. I guess I should have considered the warlock,” the man said with a dark scoff, as if mentally reprimanding himself.  
  
“Valentine,” Lydia hissed, her hand going to her belt for her seraph blade… that wasn’t there. Valentine grabbed Lydia and put her in a headlock, holding her seraph blade to her neck. Alec was about two seconds away from launching the arrow.   
  
“Let her go!” he shouted, narrowing his eyes at the man. Alec let his arrow fly, and it knocked Valentine backwards, hitting his shoulder. Lydia escaped from his grasp and put his hands behind his back. Alec let out a security alert on his phone to the Institute main system to put the place on lock-down: nobody going in or out.  
  
“Where is Maryse?!” Lydia demanded, tightening her hold of his wrists so much that they were beginning to bruise. She was obviously unhappy at being tricked by the bad guy.   
  
“She’s fine. She went to Idris this morning. Look there is no need for all this, okay?” Valentine started, explaining Maryse’s whereabouts, and that was all Alec wanted to know. He activated his parabatai rune, to send Jace a signal that he needed backup.  
  
Within a minute, Jace, Izzy and a couple of others had turned up at Maryse’s office to find Alec pointing another arrow at the man on the floor, who was being restrained by Lydia.   
  
“What’s going on?” Jace asked, his seraph blade out, ready for anything.  
  
“Ah Jace, how are you? And Isabelle?” Valentine greeted, smiling at them sinisterly from the ground.   
  
“Valentine. By the Angel,” Izzy gasped, unwrapping her whip from her wrist. “How did you get in here?”   
  
“Quite simple really. You need to improve your security. Where is Church? Now he was good on duty,” Valentine wondered, smiling back to memories of the grey cat that Magnus had taken in from the Institute. Alec let another arrow go, and it hit Valentine in the back of his hand, causing him to grimace and moan in pain.  
  
“Shut up!” Alec yelled, resetting another arrow in his bow. Jace threw Lydia some handcuffs that he had picked up, and she secured them around her wrist.  
  
“Take him downstairs. Don’t let him out of your sight!” she commanded, pushing the man roughly into the arms of Jace and Duncan. “Actually, I’m going to come down with you.” And she grabbed Valentine roughly, digging her sharp nails into his arm, and dragging him off with the two guys.   
  
“What the hell?” Izzy asked in surprise, wondering what on earth had just actually happened.  
  
“Call mom, make sure she’s okay,” Alec instructed his sister, rushing off to his room for his phone.  
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec had phoned Magnus to come and put up magical wards around Valentine, to secure him so he would not get away. The warlock was more than surprised to hear that they had caught Valentine, and was more than happy to oblige his beautiful Shadowhunter. Neither man knew what was going on between them, but they told each other they loved them and kissed in private - never in public. Alec didn’t want to label anything just yet, whereas Magnus wanted to jump right into the boyfriend thing, and Alec wasn’t sure he could do that.  
  
“Hey beautiful,” Magnus announced, stepping through the purple portal he had summoned into Alec’s bedroom.  
  
“Hey,” he replied, pacing his room with his head in his hands. Magnus went and wrapped his arms around the younger man, kissing him gently on the lips. “I’m glad you came.”   
  
“Always,” Magnus smiled, the twinkle in his eyes making Alec blush lightly. “Now, where is our evil villain?”   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec took Magnus down into the basement where they kept the prisoners of the Shadow World. Down there they kept every kind of Downworlder, Nephilim, and even sometimes mundanes, alike. The two found Valentine chained to an uncomfortable looking chair in a cell, with two heavily armed Clave members around him. To Alec’s surprise, the Inquisitor was already there, having a conversation with Jace.   
  
“I did not authorise this,” Alec started, leaving Magnus and approaching Lydia.  
  
“You didn’t need to. I did. I am in charge of this Institute, and I make the calls,” she explained harshly, not even turning to look at Alec next to her, more focused on staring at Valentine, almost studying him.   
  
“I am Head of this Institute and I make the calls,” he spat, glaring at the blond woman, who was paying no attention to him.   
  
“You told me that you were acting Head of the Institute, and since Maryse is away in Idris, that puts me of a higher rank than you. Don’t take it personally Alec,” she shrugged, dismissing the black haired man, and walking away to the Inquisitor. Alec just stood in her dust, mouth open and nostrils flaring. If it wasn’t for Magnus coming and wrapping his arms around his waist in comfort, he would have punched something.  
  
“Shh. Calm down Alexander,” the warlock told him, kissing his neck lightly. Alec physically relaxed at Magnus’ touch and sighed into his arms.  
  
“Thanks for that,” Alec chuckled slightly, removing himself from the shiny man’s grasp when the Inquisitor approached, looking particularly stern that day.  
  
“Mr Lightwood,” she acknowledged. “I am led to believe that he impersonated your mother Maryse?” the woman asked. Alec nodded his head in confirmation. “And you are aware that Maryse is safe in Idris?” Alec again nodded his head, having received a text from Izzy.   
  
“So what are you going to do with him?” Magnus asked in curiosity. The warlock sneered at the man in the chair, flashing his cat eyes at him. Valentine’s expression remained the same, in a permanent glare.   
  
“We are going to torture him, get any answers we need. Then when he is of no more use we are going to send him to Idris, and more than likely, we shall execute him,” the Inquisitor informed them, nodding her head and walking away from the two, not even batting an eye at the warlock.   
  
“I don’t like this,” Alec admitted, once the Inquisitor had left their vicinity.   
  
“What do you mean my love?” Magnus asked, taking Alec’s hand in his. Alec accepted the gesture and wrapped his fingers around Magnus’, holding tightly. “Alexander?”   
  
“It shouldn’t be this easy. Surely he wouldn’t just walk into the Institute just to be caught by the Clave?” the Shadowhunter questioned aloud. “He’s planning something. I can feel it.”  
  
“He is detained my dear. Nothing is going to come out of all this worrying,” Magnus scolded, kissing Alec on the cheek softly. Alec looked up into his love’s shiny, yellow eyes and smiled.  
  
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s probably just paranoia or something,” he dismissed. Alec and Magnus left one last look to Valentine, and left the basement, leaving the torturing to the ones that felt the need to.  
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Both Magnus and Alec left the Institute for a walk, taking a stroll through Central Park and heading to the Hunter’s Moon for a drink or five.   
  
“I will have _one_ beer, Magnus,” Alec told him, emphasising on the ‘one’ part of the sentence.   
  
“Of course angel, one beer,” he laughed, mimicking the man before him. Alec took a table at the window, and slumped into the seat, sighing into the dark red leather. The bar was rather quiet in the middle of the day, and would normally begin to pick up at around six in the evening. There were a few people around, a Seelie couple and a lone Vampire, along with the bar staff of course; including Bat, Maia’s pack-mate.   
  
Magnus came back with a beer for the Nephilim and a rather colourful looking drink for himself, Alec took note that it was full of glitter, little umbrellas, and even a sparkler!   
  
“What is even in that?” Alec questioned with wonder, smiling at the warlock over the red and blue drink.   
  
“Magic,” Magnus winked, taking a sip through the yellow straw and smirking at the Shadowhunter. Alec returned the smile and took a swig of his beer, the black haired man wouldn’t normally drink this early in the day, but he told himself that the day was an exception. It wasn’t every day that you detained a mass murderer that imposed as your mother.   
  
“How did you know that Valentine was imposing as your mother?” the warlock asked, picking a cherry from his drink and chewing on it.  
  
“He said something that my mother would never say,” he explained briefly. Alec looked into Magnus’ eyes, his eyebrows raised as if egging the Shadowhunter to carry on. “He said that I should go and see you. I know my mother would never say that.” Magnus nodded and took in the realisation that Maryse would probably never like him; but he could live with that. As long as he had this man for the rest of his mortal life, the warlock would be happy with that.  
  
The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, both taking sips of their drinks here and there, when an idea popped into Magnus’ head.  
  
“Wanna shoot some pool?” he asked, taking the Shadowhunter by surprise by the sudden break in silence.  
  
“I don’t know how to play,” Alec replied with a blush.  
  
“No need to worry Mr Lightwood. I shall show you, come on,” Magnus told him, offering the half-angel his hand. Alec smiled meekly and took the offered limb, following Magnus to the pool table.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec wasn’t sure how he got into the position of having Magnus’ arms wrapped around him as he showed him how to hold the pool cue, but he wasn’t complaining. The Shadowhunter could feel the warlock’s breath on his neck, a small kiss placed on his nape every so often, either in comfort or praise. Either way, Alec appreciated it all the same.   
  
“Now, you are stripes, after I broke and potted a solid,” Magnus explained enthusiastically, leaning on his own cue. Alec nodded and believed he understood what he had to do. The Shadowhunter lined the cue up against the white, and shot. Alec watched the ball hit a striped purple and white ball and how it rolled into a pocket on the table.  
  
“You’re a natural Alexander!” Magnus cheered with a smile.   
  
“Eh, beginner’s luck,” Alec shrugged, going to line up for another shot.   
  
They carried on like this for a time, until Magnus asked the one question he had been dreading: “How is the wedding planning coming along?”   
  
“Don’t. Please Magnus, we were having fun,” Alec complained, stopping his shot and just staring at the sparkly man.   
  
“We are still having fun, I was just making conversation. It’s a dull game is pool when nobody talks,” the warlock told him, shrugging his shoulders.  
  
“The wedding is the last thing on my mind right now. With Valentine, and the Inquisitor at the Institute, I have so much pressure on me right now that I haven’t given it a second thought,” Alec told him, shooting one of his stripes into a pocket.  
  
“You do know that it’s on Friday right?”  
  
“Yes.” Alec snapped. “I have had you remind me, Izzy remind me, Jace and Lydia, all feeling the need to remind me that I am ruining my life on Friday!” he growled, slamming his cue on the floor. He heard a man shout “hey that’s expensive” from the bar somewhere, but the Shadowhunter couldn’t care less.   
  
“I didn’t mean to upset you Alexander,” Magnus apologised. “But if you believe that you are ruining your life, then why go through with it?”  
  
“You know why,” Alec whispered, ducking his head to look at the floor, taking particular interest in the wooden slats beneath his feet.  
  
“I don’t see why you don’t boycott,” Magnus chuckled, trying to lighten the mood and tension he had created. “Or how about, when they say, ‘does anyone object?’ you could say that you do?” he suggested. Alec chuckled and shook his head in fondness at the man.  
  
“That’s cruel Mags,” he scoffed with a smile, actually kind of debating it. Magnus just winked at the Shadowhunter, he went to take his shot and found that he could pot the black easily. However he bluffed his shot and hit the pool wall instead, not even glancing the round object. Alec seemed happy with this and potted the ball easily, cheering himself on.  
  
“Well done my love,” Magnus congratulated with a grin, hoping that the Shadowhunter wouldn’t realise that he let him win.   
  
“I beat you, yes!” Alec whooped, smiling at the warlock and sticking his tongue out childishly. Magnus just laughed at the Shadowhunter and let him enjoy his moment.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
After another drink, Magnus walked Alec back to the Institute. They took a nice walk back through Central Park, passing the entrance to the seelie realm, seeing a Nixie that Magnus knew, and an ice cream that Alec begged like a child for.  
  
“Thanks for today, I kinda needed it,” Alec said with a smile, munching the last of the wafer cone of his ice cream.  
  
“My pleasure my dear, I’m glad I was a good distraction for you,” he grinned, leaning against a tree just outside the Institute borders.   
  
“And I’m sorry for snapping earlier. The wedding is driving me crazy,” Alec apologised, enveloping Magnus in a tight hug that took the warlock by surprise.   
  
“I wouldn’t worry about it Alexander, I did bring it upon myself-”   
  
Alec smiled into the crook of Magnus’ neck and kissed his carotid artery, leaving the warlock visibly shivering. Magnus went in for a deep kiss, and wrapped his arms around Alec’s neck, pulling him impossibly closer. Alec dipped his tongue into the warlock’s mouth, leaving the two men battling for dominance. Magnus moved his hands down Alec’s back, one landing on the bottom of his back, and one cupping his ass. Alec rocked into Magnus’ crotch, but pulled back immediately, regretting what he had just done.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Alec whispered, separating from the lip-lock, Magnus’ hands still placed where they were.   
  
“It’s fine Alexander. You need to stop apologising for everything,” the warlock told him, nuzzling the other’s nose cutely.   
  
“Magnus… will you come to my wedding?” Alec asked him hesitantly, not wanting to upset the man he loved.  
  
“I don’t know-”   
  
“Please. I won’t ask for anything else off you for the rest of my life. Please come,” Alec begged, kissing him again, and again. Magnus couldn’t exactly say no to that.  
  
“Fine, but only if I don’t have to initiate interaction with Maryse,” Magnus joked, reassuring the Shadowhunter that he would attend the event. Alec sighed and repeated “yes, yes” a few times, enjoying the laughter and smiles with the warlock; before it dawning on him that all happiness would stop as soon as he said ‘I do.’  
  
“Why am I ruining my life for a woman I barely know?” Alec questioned, meaning to say it in his head, but realising he said it out loud.  
  
“Everything will be okay, Alexander. I’ll make sure of it,” Magnus smiled. The warlock kissed the man again, lingering on his lips for a moment too long, before detaching himself from the Shadowhunter and walking away. Alec couldn’t help but keep his gaze on the warlock as he strutted away, as if he owned the trees and grass and pavement around him. Alec knew that if Magnus said that everything would be okay, then he would just have to trust him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a long one here guys, and I'm sorry for the long wait for this update, school has been drowning me. Anyway, cutesy little Malec, and we finally met Valentine; but what is he up too? You'll have to find out in the next chapter won't you? ;) The next chapter will be the wedding, so brace yourselves for happiness, sadness, drama, Maryse, and Malec. Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	5. Not Getting Married Today (Part 1)

Alec made his way into the surveillance room on Friday morning to find streamers of blue and gold and white, hanging from the rafters. There were balloons, confetti, drapes, everything that you had at a wedding… and Alec hated it. He really regretted agreeing to marry Lydia, and now that the day was here, he honestly felt more sick than he had ever felt, like ever. And not in a good, excited kind of sickly feeling, like projectile vomiting sick.   
  
“Alec! Finally, you’re up! What do you think of the decorations?” Izzy asked, making her way down the stairs in a dark red dress with spiked black heels on.   
  
“Well you certainly changed your tune,” Alec scoffed. “And yeah, they’re okay I guess.”   
  
“You guess?! Alec you’re getting married! Yes I may despise who you’re marrying, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a lovely day,” she told him with a smile, that Alec returned. He couldn’t be mad with his sister when she looked at him like that. “Is Magnus coming?”  
  
“He said he would, but I’m not getting my hopes up. It was kinda on a whim, and if he becomes busy then I wouldn’t expect him to come,” he explained with a shrug. In reality he really did want Magnus to come, but some part of him didn’t want to put the warlock through that.   
  
“He’ll come Alec, you’ll see. In all of his sparkly glory,” she giggled. Izzy left him with a rub of the arm, and went off to boss more people around with the decorations, because that was what she did best. Alec watched her strut off fondly, thanking the Angel that he had Izzy to help him through the day.   
  
“Dude!” Jace called, running towards Alec like an excited child.  
  
“Don’t call me dude,” Alec scolded, grimacing when Jace embraced him. “What’s got you so chipper?”  
  
“My big brother is getting married! I’m happy for you bro,” Jace exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. Alec couldn’t believe that even Jace was happy for him. He was the only one unhappy about the day, and it was his wedding day!  
  
“Thanks,” Alec mumbled with a fake smile, trying to hide the sadness in his eyes from his blond companion. “Don’t think about who it is you’re marrying, just think about you. In ten years, this could have been the best decision of your life!” the blond Shadowhunter cheered, his eyes smiling along with his lips. Alec just nodded his head glumly and slinked away from his parabatai, wanting some space from everything and everyone… except a certain warlock that he needed.  
  
Alec was wandering through the Institute aimlessly, just wanting to get as far away from the wedding as possible, but it seemed like Isabelle had decorated every available surface that she could. Alec entered his room, to shut himself out of the world, when he found a letter on his bed. He quickly opened it and read what was inside:   
  
            _Dearest Alexander,  
                      
                    I know you may be wondering why I have taken the time to write this letter, when I am only a phone call away; well the answer is, I felt like it. I know you have mixed feelings about the day ahead, but please, enjoy it whilst you can - marriage is a wonderful thing. I was happy to accept your invitation to your wedding, but unfortunately I do not think I will be able to make it due to other plans I have made. I am exceptionally sorry to not be able to make it to your big day, but I will be there in spirit. Hence the reason I brought you this gift. As the old saying goes, “something old, something blue, something borrowed, something blue.” _  
_All my love, Your Magnus xxx_   
  
Alec was crestfallen when he read the letter, and he wouldn’t admit it but he let a tear slide down his face, making it’s way on the beautifully written letter. Alec re-read the letter three times over, finally realised that Magnus had sent him a gift. He tipped the contents of the envelope out and found a necklace inside. It had a silver chain with a sapphire blue pendant, with the engravings “my love”. Alec picked it up hesitantly and held it to the light that shone through his bedroom, it was truly a beautiful piece of jewellery and clasped it around his neck, feeling the pendant land on the middle of his chest plate. Alec shot off a thank you text to the warlock and decided to go and work out for a bit, to let a bit of steam off before the ceremony.  
  
Maryse was called back from Idris after the Valentine scare and was now back at the Institute. She found her son punching the daylights out of a boxing bag, shirtless and sweaty. Her eyes caught the blue pendant that lay across his pale chest and decided to question him about it.   
  
“Hello Alec,” she greeted, stepping into the weapon’s room with a grin on her face. Alec stopped punching the bag and looked up to find his mother, stood all prim and proper in the middle of the weapon’s room, her gaze fixed on him.  
  
“Mother,” Alec acknowledged, not really in the mood for his mother’s attitude and behaviour that day.   
  
“Where did you get the necklace from?” she asked slyly, inquisitive about where her son would get such a jewel.  
  
“Magnus sent me it as an apology for not being able to come today,” the young Shadowhunter told her, not taking his eyes off of the woman in front of him.   
  
“You invited him to your wedding?” she hissed, glaring at him open-mouthed.   
  
“Yes, but he can’t come so problem solved.”  
  
“That’s besides the point, Alec. Did you ask Lydia?” she asked him, a vein in her neck starting to bulge through frustration.  
  
“No, it’s my wedding so I can invite whom I want. Magnus was one of those people. I know you don’t like him Mom, but you don’t know him like I do,” Alec snapped back, taking up to shooting some arrows at targets.  
  
“No, but I have known him _longer_ than you have. I know who he has been with, and what he is capable of,” she reprimanded, going to stand closer to him now. Alec threw down the bow in anger and walked away from his mother, going to grab a couple of seraph blades and the shirt he had discarded. “And where do you think you’re going?”  
  
“Out.”  
  
“Your wedding is in three hours Alec!” she yelled, but to no avail, Alec kept on storming away.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec found himself in front of Magnus’ apartment, willing himself to go in, even though he knew the warlock was busy. Alec tried the door and found it open, so let himself inside, calling Magnus’ name as he went. To his surprise, the warlock wasn’t in, in fact, it looked like the apartment hadn’t seen sight nor sound of Magnus for a couple of days at least. The TV wasn’t on standby like it would be normally, there were no cups on the side waiting to be washed by magic like there often would be, and there was no dressing gown draped on the couch like there had been everyday since the Shadowhunter met the sparkly man.   
  
Alec was worried.   
  
Alec tried to ring Magnus multiple times, but the phone just kept ringing and ringing until Alec got sick of hearing the noise and hung up, then tried again. He made his way to Magnus’ bedroom, to see if he could find any sign of life in there. But with as much success as there had been in the rest of the flat, nothing. Alec even found one of Magnus’ rings on the bedside table that he knew for a fact that Magnus always wore. Alec took the ring in his hands and turned it over in his fingers a few times, feeling the cold silver against his hands made him physically shiver. The Shadowhunter closed his eyes, and clutched the ring in both of his palms that were now clapped together, feeling a rush of warmth pulse through him as he attempted to track the warlock.  
  
Alec must have tried about three times before he got the message through on his phone. It was a red alert from the Institute; which meant he had to get there asap.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec arrived to the Institute in utter chaos! There were Shadowhunters everywhere with seraph blades, daggers, bows and arrows and many more. He saw Duncan flash past him with a staff in his hands and a blade in his belt, looking as if ready to go into battle.  
  
“What’s going on?” Alec yelled to nobody in particular, hoping he would at least get an answer from somebody.  
  
“Valentine’s escaped!” somebody shouted in response. He looked up and found Izzy and Jace were running towards him, armed to the teeth with all kinds of weapons.  
  
“What do you mean he escaped? How could he escape?!” Alec questioned, taking his bow off of his shoulder just in case.  
  
“He’s gone, like he just disappeared. Duncan went down for his guard duty and nobody was there, no Clave members, nothing,” Jace explained, clutching his seraph blade tightly.  
  
“How could he just disappear? That’s not possible unless…” Alec started, his mind suddenly clicking.  
  
“Unless what?” Izzy continued.   
  
“Magnus,” he finished, running off through the Institute to his office.   
  
He was running through the halls, when he bumped into Lydia and the Inquisitor, with Izzy and Jace at his heels.  
  
“Mr Lightwood, any leads?” Inquisitor Herondale asked, interrupting her conversation with Lydia.   
  
“I think Magnus has been kidnapped,” Alec informed her, worry etched all over his face.   
  
“Magnus Bane? That would explain how Valentine could get in and out,” Lydia contemplated, agreeing with Alec’s assumption. “Is there any way that we can confirm this?”  
  
“I went to Magnus’ and he wasn’t there, everything was out of the ordinary,” Alec rattled off, reaching for his phone to try and ring Magnus. “I couldn’t even track him, something must be blocking his signal.”  
  
“What if Magnus has been kidnapped? How do we get him back?” Izzy asked. She watched Alec phone Magnus twice, but to no answer from the other side.  
  
“We have managed to narrow down Valentine’s whereabouts to three locations. This was what we managed to get out of Valentine using the agony rune,” the Inquisitor told them. “We think he is on the docks, werewolf territory.”  
  
“Contact Lucien Graymark?”  
  
“Already done, he and his pack are on the lookout-” Imogen stopped, looking down at her pager. “They’ve got him. Jace, Isabelle, off you go with Lydia and Alec to the docks. Make yourselves useful and save the warlock while you’re at it.”  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
The group of Nephilim were greeted by Maia, Bat and Alaric who were waiting for them at the Jade Wolf. They briefed them about how they had found Valentine, two Circle members, a warlock and two Clave members in a storage container.   
  
“Luke is trying to break in the doors with the rest of the pack, Gretel is on side with medical supplies just in case. Just a warning, we did hear screams,” Alaric told them, approaching the container that was surrounded by a group of wolves. There was only Luke in human form who was shoulder charging the heavy, metal doors that seemed to be closed on the inside somehow.   
  
Jace took his stele to the door and tried multiple runes to unlock it, set it on fire, dismantle it, but nothing worked.  
  
“Magnus!” Alec yelled through the metal, hoping to hear some sort of response from the warlock. They could hear some muffled shouts, and then a yelp of pain, and Alec lost it. He took a run at the container, pushing all of his strength into his shoulder to hit the metal. The black-haired man wobbled backwards slightly in pain, clutching his arm as it was vibrating with pain.   
  
“Alec, you’ll hurt yourself,” Lydia scolded him, trying to apply an iratze to his shoulder, but he shrugged her off.   
  
“Get off,” he snapped, scaling the container. He managed to convince Jace to help him up onto the container top, to see if there was a way in that way. “Jace, throw us your dagger!”   
  
“Why?” the blond questioned, his eyebrows raised.   
  
“I have an idea! Just throw it!” Jace sighed and lobbed his seraph dagger up to his parabatai. Alec grabbed the dagger and plunged it through the metal of the container top, amazed that it actually penetrated it. He managed to carve a part of the metal away, enough for him to see inside it, the hole almost the size of a shoe.  
  
Alec lay flat on his stomach with his bow and arrow in his grasp, aiming it through the small hole at the bald head in his view. He released the arrow and it bounced off of the metal wall, striking Valentine in the shoulder. Alec rolled himself away from view, pressing his ear to the container again, hearing a kerfuffle of voices and a howl of pain from the man he struck.   
  
“Damn Lightwood!” he heard Valentine growl, not surprised that the villain had managed to figure it out it was him that launched the arrow.   
  
Suddenly he felt the container shake and Alec ducked off of the container and onto the ground, running over to the group of now retreating Shadowhunters.  
  
“It looks like it’s going to explode!” Lydia yelled, shielding her face from the flying shrapnel from the half-destroyed container.  
  
“It’s Magnus!” Alec shouted back, “it’s his magic!”  
  
A millisecond later the container was completely obliterated, Valentine was half-way across the floor, splayed out at all angles, along with his fellow Circle members. Whilst Magnus was stood in the centre of the bomb site, flicking his hair back up in its flawless quiff as if he had only just stepped out of the door, like none of what had just happened had happened.   
  
“Alexander, thank you for coming to rescue me,” he smiled, going up and kissing Alec on his pale cheek.   
  
“But.. y-yo-you’re okay?” he stammered, stroking the spot on his face that Magnus’ lips just graced.  
  
“Well, I was just a victim of a traumatising attack… of course I’m okay,” Magnus smirked, shooting a wink at Alec.   
  
“How did you blow up the container?” Lydia questioned, never moving her eyes off of the warlock.  
  
“Let’s say a surge of emotion brought it on,” Magnus told her, flipping his hair once more. “Haven’t you got a wedding to, you know, get married at?” Alec began to stammer again, and Magnus just chuckled.  
  
“He’s right Alec, you need to get to the Institute now,” Izzy informed them, checking the time on her phone.  
  
“Then let’s go the express route,” Magnus announced, whipping up a purple portal in front of the group of Shadowhunters. Jace and Izzy led the way through, quickly followed by Alec and Magnus and Lydia…  
  
  
 **To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I am sooooooo supermega sorry about my lack of updates, college has been hectic, all it is, is work work work work work! I hope this first part of the wedding will help you all forgive me! Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	6. Not Getting Married Today (Part 2)

The Nephilim and the warlock ended up in a heap on the surveillance room floor; apparently Lydia decided to grab onto Alec’s arm so hard that she fell on him upon landing, causing Alec to fall on top of Izzy etc.   
  
“I’ll go with Lydia to get her dressed, Jace go with Alec,” Izzy instructed, brushing herself off and shooting a glare at Lydia.   
  
“Actually, Maryse put me on door duty. Being the best man and all,” Jace excused, nodding his head at Alec, and leaving the scene rapidly, rushing off to get changed and taking his place at the door.  
  
“Well Alec can’t get changed on his own. Magnus, why don’t you go with him?”  
  
“I hardly think that is appropriate-” Lydia started.   
  
“I would love to help Alexander get dressed… if that is what he wishes?” Magnus finished, cutting Lydia off and making eye contact with Alec.  
  
“Sure, I’ll need someone to help me tie my bow tie,” he chuckled, leading Magnus away from the girls and to his room. Izzy watched the boys walk away and met an angry Lydia.   
  
“Why did you do that? You don’t know what he’s going to try and do to Alec,” Lydia protested.   
  
“Oh please, Magnus has more class than to hook up with a a groom-to-be. Alec however…” Izzy teased, taking Lydia by the wrist and practically dragging her to the blond’s office.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec was half in his tuxedo when Magnus slumped down on the Shadowhunter’s bed sadly.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Alec asked him, spying him through the reflection of his mirror.  
  
“Nothing,” muffled Magnus as his face was stuffed into Alec’s pillows.   
  
“Come on Magnus… you’re not hurt are you?” Alec asked, worried that perhaps the warlock was injured during the blast of the container from earlier on.   
  
“No, well, not physically. I just don’t understand why you are going through with this marriage if you don’t really want to,” Magnus wondered aloud, hoping the Shadowhunter would catch his drift.  
  
“I.. I kinda don’t have a choice. We’ve been through this before Magnus, it’s my duty to marry Lydia,” he huffed, becoming stressed emotionally and with his bow tie. He growled in frustration which made Magnus sit up, he chuckled at the Nephilim and went to help him with his predicament.  
  
“I know why you’re supposed to marry Lydia, but what I don’t understand is why you are marrying somebody you don’t love. It’s foreign to me,” the warlock explained, tying Alec’s bow tie swiftly and neatly.  
  
“You know I love you Mags, but I can’t marry you. The Clave would never allow it, they would probably just strip me of my runes just for being gay!” he exasperated, taking Magnus to the bed with him.  
  
“What if we did it in secret?” Magnus blurted out with a smile. Alec reciprocated the smile and laid back on his bed.  
  
“I would never be able to keep it a secret, you’re too amazing to keep hidden away,” Alec blushed, looking at Magnus through bright, blue eyes of awe and love.  
  
“Well, that’s sweet Alexander, and I love you too… I just don’t think I can come to the wedding. It would be hard on everybody, not just you and I,” Alec looked like he was about to cut in, when Magnus continued. “When Valentine raided my apartment, I was terrified. And not just for myself, but for you too, I didn’t know whether you were safe or whether you were dying in the Institute somewhere. But what I mean is… that’s what happens when you love somebody, you worry about them constantly, you want to help them and protect them all of the time - but sometimes you can’t. If you hadn’t rescued me today, who knows what would have happened to me. Alexander, answer me this honestly; would you have done the same for Lydia?”   
  
Alec thought for a while at this question, pondering which answer was the right to give. He knew that being a Shadowhunter he must protect his fellow Nephilim, but whether he would rescue Lydia from a life or death situation was another thing to contemplate entirely. He knew he should say yes, but his heart wouldn’t let him.   
  
“No. I don’t think I would…” Alec answered, looking down at his hands guiltily. Magnus didn’t say anything in response, he just placed his own hands over Alec’s and rested his forehead against his angel’s strong shoulder. “What should I do Magnus?”   
  
“I think you need to seriously think, because in twenty minutes, you could be stood face to face with the worst decision you could ever make… Tell me, Alec… What do you feel when you see me?” Magnus told him, and with his question, wanted a serious answer.   
  
“I feel instantly happy, like whatever situation I’m in prior to seeing you becomes so much better so fast. And I feel like I can’t breathe properly, like you take away all of the air in the room with just one flick of your flawless hair,” he chuckled. “I feel my heart speed up until it feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest, like my body can feel when you are near me… that’s what I feel.” Magnus was left speechless for the first time in his life, the man in front of him made him lose all words to speak with and he just sat there with his eyes and his heart wide open. The warlock looked close to tears with his loved one’s declaration and so desperately wanted to portal him away to a far off place where nobody would ever find them.   
  
“As I said… I think you need to think hard about what you are going to do my love,” and with one last kiss on the cheek, Magnus left the Nephilim in his room, trying to get away before the Shadowhunter could see his tears.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
The Institute looked amazing, there were golden banners hanging around, streamers of blue and silver and gold draped from ceiling to floor. Jace even noticed an odd black one here and there that Izzy had put there just for Alec. The blond Shadowhunter had welcomed everybody that was invited inside the Institute and showed them to their seats, reserving the front row for close friends and family. He even saved one for Magnus… not that he told Maryse that.  
  
“Jace, where is Alec? He should be down here by now!” Maryse snapped, shooting false smiles to the guests and saving the glares for her adopted son.   
  
“He’s in his room, I’ll go and get him,” Jace told her, running away from Maryse quickly to try and save Alec from being told off by his mother in front of the guests.  
  
He reached Alec’s door to find Magnus leaving hastily, the warlock almost in tears.   
  
“Alec, buddy? You in there?” Jace asked before pushing the door to enter his room. He found his parabatai laid down on his bed, fully dressed with his bow tie tied neatly. “Everything okay?”   
  
“Not really Jace,” Alec sighed with a shake of his head. He sat up and locked eyes with his brother, desperately trying not to erupt in a flood of tears.  
  
“Something happen with Magnus?”  
  
“I don’t really wanna talk about it, I just want to get today over with,” he told him. Jace looked at his parabatai with concern, he never saw Alec emotional, he was always the strong one out of the three of them, he and Izzy were the toughest people he knew, and he could just see Alec breaking down gradually.  
  
“I hate seeing you like this bud, I think you need to call the wedding off,” Jace said, hoping that his opinion might be of some value to his brother.  
  
“I can’t! People will be wanting explanations and I can’t tell everyone that I’m in love with a warlock can I?” Alec cried, throwing himself back on his bed again, his face covered with his hands so that Jace couldn’t see his tears.  
  
“You’re in love with Magnus? W-w-why didn’t you tell me?” Jace questioned, taking a seat next to Alec and just watching his brother’s body shake.  
  
“I didn’t want to. I didn’t want you to think any less of me. I didn’t want you to think that I couldn’t be a Shadowhunter anymore… that I wouldn’t be good enough to do my job,” Alec blubbered into his hands, still not wanting Jace to see him crying, even though it was apparent by now that he was.  
  
“How could you think like that Alec? I’m your brother, and your parabatai and I love you bud. I would never think anything like that about you Alec, you’re my best friend. You’re such an idiot Alec,” Jace smiled, picking his brother up off of the bed and hugging him close, he could feel Alec’s body shaking in his grip, which just made him hold him tighter.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Magnus left Alec’s room in a hurry, nearly knocking into Jace as he went, which wasn’t ideal if he was being honest. The warlock assumed that the blond Shadowhunter would figure out everything, (even Jace wasn’t that stupid) and would go and tell Maryse about everything. He had managed to stop the tears from falling and ruining his make-up, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still upset about what had happened. Magnus was so intent on getting out of the Institute, that he didn’t even see Izzy walk out of Lydia’s office, nor did he see her when he walked straight into her.  
  
“Magnus! Are you alright?” she asked in shock, having never seen the High Warlock in such distress before. Even when he got kidnapped earlier, he still looked flawless whilst doing it. Before Magnus could even say a word, she pulled him into the weapon’s room and sat him down on the floor.  
  
“Please, Isabelle, just let me leave,” he pleaded, not even making an effort to fight against the woman.   
  
“No. Now what happened?” Izzy questioned whilst going and getting a chair… there was no way she could sit down in the dress she was wearing.  
  
“Alec is still intent on marrying the she-witch, and I’m not happy about it. He keeps going on and on about duty, duty, duty, and I…” he stopped, hoping Izzy would get what he was talking about.  
  
“I’m not happy about it either, at first Lydia was nice and wanting to do the whole wedding thing just to get my mom off of Alec’s back, and now she is even becoming more demanding than my own mother… do you know how hard that is to achieve?” she chortled lightly, trying to give Magnus’ mood a boost.   
  
“I haven’t opened up, or loved anybody since Camille, almost a century ago. And now Alec has come along and changed all of that three-fold, and now he is marrying Lydia and it is me that ends up alone, getting more and more cats,” Magnus admitted glumly, in a mix of feeling sorry for himself and sorry for Alec.  
  
“Alec loves you Magnus, and you love him. Everything will come together in the end, you’ll see. But don’t leave, come to the wedding, you don’t know what could happen,” Izzy smiled, rubbing Magnus’ arm affectionately and helping him up off of the floor. She took his arm, not even listening to his apprehensions and pulled him along with her.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
“You ready?” Jace asked his parabatai. Alec took one last look in the mirror, knowing he could not delay this any longer.

  
“I’m ready…”   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Everybody was waiting patiently for the wedding to start, Alec had taken his place on the altar with Brother Jeremiah and Jace. Izzy was to walk in front of Lydia down the aisle and hold her flowers and stuff. Both Alec and Jace kept a look out for the warlock, but to no avail, he was not to be seen; Alec knew in his heart that Magnus had probably gone home and planned on never seeing him again.   
  
Maryse and Robert came and said a few words of encouragement to their eldest son, Maryse happy to see him there fulfilling his duty, and Robert more there for moral support if everything went wrong… Alec was saddened to hear that Max couldn’t join them as he was in Idris with the Penhallows’, currently in bed with a fever due to hitting himself in the leg with a lightly poisoned spear. Thankfully it was nothing serious, but it still put him out of action for a few weeks. Maryse and Robert went to sit down, and the music started.   
  
Alec saw his beautiful sister walk, or more like strut down the aisle, in her fierce golden dress and her heels clicking on the floor. He smiled at Izzy, and became worried now, Lydia would soon be coming down the aisle to say ‘I do’.   
  
The whole congregation of guests gasped when they saw Lydia in her dress, white in colour with golden accents around the hem, a veil atop her head in a flowing waterfall of white. In Alec’s opinion, she did look very pretty, but she was nothing compared to Magnus, and he was beginning to think that he had made the wrong decision. Lydia climbed up the steps with the help of Izzy and Jace, and stood opposite Alec, holding her hands out for him to take. He took them hesitantly, but smiled at her to cover up the fact that he was not okay.   
  
_“The union between Nephilim is a sacred one, and must be recognised by the couple’s willingness to bestow upon each other, the wedded rune of union,”_ boomed Brother Jeremiah’s voice through the room. Alec actually flinched and nearly dropped his stele when the Brother spoke.  _“You place the rune upon the back of each other’s hand as a symbol of matrimony, then we continue to the one placed on the heart, the one of utmost permanency,”_ the Brother continued. He lit up the altar with his own stele and encouraged Lydia to take the essence out of the altar and place it onto the back of Alec’s hand.   
  
She almost reached it when… A door was heard opening, and through it, walked Magnus, in a brand new outfit, tinges of red running through his hair, and he looked brightly confident in himself. Alec turned to face the warlock, when his mother stood up and told him to leave.   
  
“I will not leave, until Alexander asks me too,” he snapped, walking a little further down the aisle, his eyes never leaving Alec’s.   
  
“Alec, are you okay?” Lydia whispered to the man in front of her, his head whipping back and forth to her and the gorgeous warlock just a little distance away from him.  
  
“I-I-I can’t breathe,” he hyperventilated, his shoulders moving up and down in time with his increased breathing.   
  
“Psst, Izzy. Did Alec invite Magnus?” Jace asked his sister.  
  
“I made him come, but I thought he would portal out last minute,” she whispered back.   
  
“Alec, it’s okay,” Lydia smiled genuinely, it was almost like she was encouraging him to go to the warlock. “I’ll be okay, now, you go and be better than okay.” Alec smiled back at her, kissed her on the cheek and came down the stairs.   
  
“Alec, get back up there!” Maryse snapped at her son.   
  
“Enough,” Alec dismissed, and walked straight towards the colourful warlock. He came face to face with the man he loved and pulled him in by the lapels to meet his lips. They kissed for what felt like hours, but was really seconds, and they couldn’t get enough of each other. They both pulled away, but Magnus chased him, capturing his lips once again, kissing him like he had never kissed anyone before. Both the Nephilim and the warlock pulled away eventually, both smiling at each other in pure bliss.  
  
“You never cease to amaze me, Alexander,” Magnus uttered, never taking his chocolate eyes off of Alec’s blue ones.  
  
“Always the tone of surprise,” Alec chuckled, taking Magnus by the hand and kissing it. Magnus chuckled at the man he loved, but their happiness was soon interrupted by Maryse.   
  
“Alec! How could you do this to us? To me?” she reprimanded, holding her hands firmly by her sides as if to stop herself from striking her son.  
  
“I did this for me. Not you, nor the family. Me. I wasn’t going to let myself get involved in a decision that I was going to regret for the rest of my life. Magnus is my life now, and if you can’t accept that then… you might as well just leave now,” Alec told his mother, scolding her as she did him. Magnus looked so proud of his Shadowhunter and blushed with happiness and pride. Maryse stormed off in a huff, with one lasting glare at Magnus, she stalked off with Robert at her heels.  
  
“I’m so proud of you Alec,” Izzy admitted, coming down from the altar and embracing her brother.   
  
“Dude, that was awesome!” Jace cried, running down and jumping at his parabatai. Alec couldn’t help but laugh at Jace and hugged him tightly.   
  
“Is Lydia okay?” Alec asked, almost forgetting about the girl for a moment.   
  
“Yeah, she was going to get changed and go back to Idris, something about finding a better purpose,” Jace explained. Alec nodded and couldn’t help but feel a sadness for the woman he almost married.   
  
“I’m going to go and check on her,” Magnus spoke up. “There are certain things I need to thank her and apologise to her for.”   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
“Lydia?” Magnus called through the door to her office. He pushed open the door to find the girl sprawled out on the floor, her seraph blade strewn across the room as if she was involved in a struggle. “Lydia!...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the lack of updates lately guys, lots of stuff going on pretty much everywhere in my life and I'm finding less and less time to write. But fear not, for I will not give up on this story, and as long as you are willing to keep on reading, I shall keep on writing!! (Ignore the medieval wording, just felt like it...) Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	7. Still On A High

It had been three weeks since the debacle at Alec and Lydia’s almost wedding, and everyone in the Shadow World was still on a high. Magnus had made sure every Downworlder knew about how Alec had disrupted his own wedding just to kiss him in public, he was proud of his Nephilim and was not holding back… he wanted absolutely everyone to know.  
  
“Hey you,” Magnus greeted, finding Alec in his office. After the attack of Lydia on the night of the wedding, the Institute had been on high alert. Thankfully she was fine, but she was portalled back to Idris soon after she had woken up. It was still unknown as to who had attacked her, but they were not going to stop looking, according to Alec, it was the main priority.  
  
“Hey,” he sighed. The Shadowhunter was slumped over a mountain of paperwork, filling in disgruntled complaint forms from the wedding guests who weren’t open to the idea of happiness between both a Downworlder and a Shadowhunter. Also he was sending a letter of apology, per his mother’s request, to the Clave for disgracing the honoured name of Lightwood. Jace had reassured him that his grandmother would be fine with it, but Alec didn’t want to take any chances.  
  
“Busy?” Magnus asked, going to stand behind Alec’s office chair and wrap his arms around him.   
  
“A little, just paperwork that I am tempted to sacrifice to the fire rune… You got off early?” Alec grumbled, dropping his pen in favour of holding one of Magnus’ perfectly manicured hands.  
  
“I only had two clients today… and please don’t be mad, but I got a new cat,” Magnus admitted, smiling at his boyfriend sweetly. “Another cat? I will turn up to your apartment one day and I won’t be able to find you due to the amount of cats in there. You will be buried by cats,” Alec chuckled, knowing his boyfriend had a strong affections for the felines, but he thought eleven cats was more than enough.   
  
“Nonsense, my cats love me… well when they want feeding at least. Anyway, how about you leave this paperwork until tomorrow and come home early? I’ll cook?” the warlock tempted, trying to draw in his beloved from his job.   
  
“And by cook, you mean zap some food from Taki’s and pass it off as your own? I have lasagna there all the time, I can tell the difference,” he told him. Magnus feigned shock, and held his hand to his chest in mock horror.  
  
“I’m appalled that you think that of me,” Magnus chuckled, clicking his fingers and making some food appear in front of Alec, his paperwork stacked neatly to the side. Alec’s mouth began to water at the sight of the food, something that he hadn’t been able to eat all day due to how busy he had been. Alec looked up at Magnus through a raised eyebrow as if to say ‘told you so,’ but refrained because he was entirely grateful for his boyfriend’s warlock abilities.  
  
“Thank you Mags, this is brilliant,” he said, taking a fork and digging into a big plate of lasagna.  
  
“Of course it is, I didn’t cook it,” the warlock smiled, “your lack of faith in my kitchen abilities was well placed.” Alec just smiled at him again, taking to eating pasta and reading through the complaint forms he had received.  
  
His life as Head of Institute sucked at times.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
A week later, Alec had finished his letter of apology and reading the notes of complaint, basically telling him his sexuality stopped him from being an amazing Shadowhunter - of course everybody knew otherwise, as Alec was one of the best Shadowhunters of his generation.   
  
Magnus had named his new cat Mr Fuzz and he was settling in nicely, he had made friends with Church and Chairman Meow and was becoming extremely attached to Alec’s black hoodie, so much so he arrived at the Institute with white and ginger fur plastered all over the black material. Jace had a different idea about where the fur was from, but Alec punched him in the face, which shut him up.  
  
“Alec!” Alec heard from his office, he was just finishing off a demon report from the last month. He shouted for the owner of the voice to enter the room, and Izzy rushed in through the large doors. “We’ve found a video of the night Lydia was attacked. You need to see this.”  
  
“What is it? What did you find? Who attacked her?” Alec threw at her, following closely to her heels to the surveillance room where the big computer screen was.   
  
“It looks human, but we think it’s a hybrid,” Izzy told him. “It wanted something, but found Lydia instead.”   
  
“What did it want?”   
  
“Something in her office, but nobody knows what. It purposefully came into her office for something, literally walked in through the door,” she explained, recalling what she saw from the tape. They came to the surveillance room, where Jace and Duncan were watching and re-watching the video, trying to figure out who or what it was that attacked Lydia.   
  
Alec watched it through twice, and paused it at a time of 00:13, where he found a glitch… the video had been lapsed. The Nephilim watched the video through again, and saw the person attack Lydia, and knock her onto the floor, and it looked like the person had left at 00:11 with nothing destroyed and nothing in hand - but at 00:13, a picture off of Lydia’s room had been thrown to the ground, the canvas ripped from the frame.   
  
“Someone go to the room and check the wall. But I have no idea what he wanted…”   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
They ran to Lydia’s old room and quickly took the replaced picture off of the wall, revealing a safe that was built into it.  
  
“How long has this safe been in here? I don’t remember it ever being here?” Alec asked, confused. Jace gave a shrug of the shoulders and Izzy shook her head.  
  
“Maybe Lydia had it installed?” Jace suggested.  
  
“I would have known if she requested it,” Alec replied quickly, he had no idea how this safe had got there. He knew it wasn’t there when Hodge lived in the room because he scaled that room head to toe before the tutor had moved in.  
  
“Can you open it?” Duncan questioned, going to pull on the safe handle. He tried a few times and nothing worked, it was evident that you needed a code to get in. Jace tried the unlocking rune, but to no avail, it didn’t open.   
  
“There must be a code for it,” Izzy declared, punching in a four digit number she knew was Lydia’s birth date, nothing. She then tapped in the date of what her wedding day to Alec would have been… the door slowly opened to reveal… nothing.   
  
“There’s nothing in there, that guy must have known how to get in, and what was in there in the first place. It must have been something of value,” Jace told them, finding no other solution to their current problem… in short, they needed Lydia.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec arrived at Magnus’ apartment that night, going over various scenarios in his head for how to get a hold of Lydia without indicating it was Clave business. She had made it pretty clear when she left that she no longer wanted to work for the Clave.  
  
“Hello Alexander, how was your day?” Magnus asked with a smile from the sofa. Church and Chairman Meow were on either side of the warlock, but Mr Fuzz was nowhere to be seen.   
  
“Hey,” Alec sighed, slumping onto the couch next to Magnus, and cuddling into a pillow and Magnus’ side.  
  
“And what has happened to make you so down?” the sparkly man questioned, running his fingers through Alec’s raven-dark hair.   
  
“We found out what happened to Lydia, that night. But we don’t know how to bring it up with her without hinting at it being Clave business. We know why she was attacked, and kind of know who it was that did it; but nobody knows what it took and why,” Alec explained, stroking Chairman Meow’s furry head.   
  
“Well why don’t you just simply ask her what she had in the safe?” Magnus suggested, brushing the falling hair out of his Nephilim’s face.  
  
“Do you not think that would be too blunt?”  
  
“Well maybe, but it couldn’t hurt to try. She left on good terms so I don’t see any harm of going to Idris and asking her,” the warlock said, pushing himself off of the sofa, leaving a disgruntled Alec and two cats in his wake. “You haven’t seen Mr Fuzz have you? He hasn’t been inside all day.”  
  
“No sorry Mags… So you think I should just go to Idris? But what if she doesn’t want to see me?” Alec argued, also lifting himself off the couch and moving through the apartment to the bathroom.   
  
“Well I will be going with you, for portals and such, but maybe if she sees that we both need her, maybe her she-devil persona will melt like the wicked witch of the west herself,” Magnus chuckled, going into the cupboard for some cat food. This awoke Church and Chairman Meow from their slumber and they both rushed to the kitchen for their tuna flavoured food.   
  
As Magnus poured a sachet each into a bowl for his kitties, Mr Fuzz appeared at the window. Magnus was extremely annoyed with the feline that had now appeared, and clicked his fingers at him, hoping to levitate him inside. To Magnus’ shock, the cat disintegrated to reveal a human man. Or more like, demon.   
  
“Who are you?” Magnus questioned, his hands at the ready to produce a ball of magic if he needed.   
  
“Where is it?” the man-demon growled, turning to face Magnus with black eyes. The man was tall, thin, and extremely terrifying; he had a bright, pale face that made him look as though there was no blood in his body, and his black eyes were deeper than the depths of Hell itself.   
  
“Magnus, what’s going on?” Alec asked as he wandered back into the kitchen, straight in front of the man-demon. The guy grabbed Alec around the neck and pulled him into a choke hold. Magnus wanted to scream at seeing his boyfriend being strangled and threw a fire ball at the demon, hoping to move him away from the Shadowhunter. However, the magic seemed to bounce off of the man-demon and ricocheted through the window, causing it to shatter.   
  
“I am Azazel, and I want what I came for!” the man-demon yelled, spitting venom onto the floor of Magnus’ apartment.   
  
“What is it you want?” Magnus asked calmly, trying to figure out how to talk to the guy, without him hurting Alec.  
  
“The Phosphor - I want it!”  
  
“Phosphor? That’s impossible, that thing was never mended,” Magnus explained to the Greater Demon. For once in his life, he was frightened, frightened of what he would do to his darling Alexander if he didn’t give him what he wanted.  
  
“It was supposed to be in the safe… Valentine promised me,” Azazel growled, strengthening his grip around Alec’s neck. Alec was close to going blue in the face, and Magnus had to do something… fast.  
  
“Valentine was caught by the Clave almost a month ago, how could he have promised you anything?” Magnus interrogated, almost distracted by trying to find a weak point on the Greater Demon.  
  
“Valentine was never captured, you fool! You really think a great man like Valentine could be held for long? He was gone before the Clave even got to the docks; the dogs couldn’t hold him so he fled. Now you, Prince of Edom, will help me get the Phosphor, or I snap your pretty Nephilim’s neck… sound like a deal?”   
  
Magnus was torn on what to do, his eyes kept flashing from the blackness of Azazel to the blue of Alec.  
  
“D.d.d..don’t,” Alec managed to choke out. Magnus honestly didn’t know what to do; he wanted to get Alexander to safety, but he couldn’t do that if he didn’t agree to Azazel’s terms.   
  
Magnus had made his decision… “Over my dead body,” and with a snap of his wrists, he had blinded Azazel temporarily with a flash of light, and quickly wrapped up Alec in his arms and portalled out of there.   
  
They landed in the Institute in a heap of limbs, and once Alec was in his arms, Magnus never wanted to let go. He enveloped him into a tight hug, whispering apologies and sweet nothing in his ears, kissing the Shadowhunter’s face repeatedly, reassuring that he was in fact, okay.   
  
“Mags, I’m fine baby, you got me out,” Alec told him, placing his forehead against the warlock’s in relief.   
  
“It took me too long, he could have killed you,” Magnus snapped, telling himself off internally as well.   
  
“But he didn’t. We now know what he wants, just breathe okay. You were amazing,” Alec reassured, kissing Magnus firmly, wanting to get across how proud he was of the warlock and how much he loved him.  
  
“Magnus? Alec?” came the voice of Izzy, who had just arrived in the surveillance room to find her brother and Magnus lip-locked on the floor. “What happened?”   
  
“We know who it was that attacked Lydia,” Magnus started. “It was Azazel, the Greater Demon, he wanted a Phosphor from Lydia, that was why he attacked her.”   
  
“What’s a Phosphor?” Izzy asked, helping Magnus and Alec to their feet.  
  
“It’s like a witchlight, but can release five times more light, it was known to kill vampires at night, instead of having to rely on the sun. It was invented by Henry Branwell, Lydia’s ancestor, a distant grandfather. I knew him back in the day, an amazing inventor - but to my knowledge, the Phosphor was destroyed after a raid at a vampire den went wrong, it set fire. But Henry, the sneaky bugger, must have mended it, or made a new one and passed it down through the family, hence why Lydia has it,” Magnus explained, typing into the computers in the room, to reveal a rock that looked very much like a witchlight, but was bigger in size, and brighter in contrast to an ordinary witchlight.   
  
“It can kill vampires?” Alec repeated, looking closely at the picture of the item in question. Magnus nodded and came away from the computer.  
  
“Lydia must have packed it before she got attacked, hence why the safe was empty. And if it’s as valuable as we believe, then she must have packed it away so Azazel or anybody couldn’t find it. She’s more clever than I believed her to be,” Izzy admitted, feeling a hint of shame in her voice and in her cheeks. “I’ll get Jace to contact Imogen, see if we can find out where Lydia is.”  
  
“Can’t we do this without the Clave’s input?” Alec asked, almost begging to leave them out of it.   
  
“You want to break the rules? How the tables have turned Alec,” Izzy laughed as she stalked off, no doubt going to the weapons room to find something that could help them.   
  
“You sure you want to do this? Go behind the Clave’s back and go to Idris ourselves?” Magnus confirmed, smiling at his Shadowhunter with pride.  
  
“Screw the Clave, let’s do this…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so sorry about lack of updates and especially with how long it took me to write this chapter. I sincerely apologise, but college has been hectic and A-levels are hard! Essays, essays and more essays at the moment. Hopefully during the xmas holidays I'll be able to get a couple more chapters out, ideally I wanted to finish this story by the end of the year but I'm not sure whether I'm going to be able to manage it. Thank you to all that keep reading my fics and leaving comments and kudos, thanks to you guys my Malec Family Life has had over 5000 views so thank you so much for that!!! Love you guys xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	8. The Home Of Shadowhunters

Magnus, Alec and Izzy had arrived in their portal to Idris, had gotten through the gates, explaining that the reason they had a warlock with them was because he was sent for questioning. Magnus wasn’t a fan of this but it was the only way into the sacred city. They were now wandering around Idris, trying to find any trace of Lydia Branwell and where in the Angel she could be.   
  
“Maybe we should split up?” Izzy suggested, getting out her dagger from its sheath.   
  
“Do you think that’s smart?” Alec replied, a raised eyebrow. There was no way he was leaving Magnus on his own in a city like Idris, they’d eat him alive!   
  
“I mean, I go one way, and you and Magnus go another. I could drop in at the Penhallows, see if they know where Lydia is,” she explained.  
  
“Do you really think Aline is going to be able to keep it a secret, that a Lightwood is back in Idris, she’d ring alarm bells the first chance she got,” Alec snapped at his sister, Aline Penhallow was a close friend of the family, but she was a gossip to the core.  
  
“You should give her more credit than that Alec… she knew you were gay before you or I knew you were gay,” Isabelle laughed, sauntering off down the streets of Idris, leaving Alec and Magnus alone. Alec didn’t really know how to respond to that, and just glared in fury at her sister departing from them. Magnus couldn’t help but chuckle, and dragged him off through the streets, trying to avoid anyone and everyone.   
  
“I hate my sister sometimes,” Alec complained, joining hands with the warlock absent-mindedly. Just then, Magnus froze, realising what Alec had done without even thinking. “You okay?”   
  
“You took my hand… sorry it’s stupid,” Magnus shrugged off, trying to ignore the swelling feeling inside himself at how much he loved the Shadowhunter, and how much more he was feeling for him.   
  
“Sorry, I didn’t think,” Alec apologised, growing red in the face, but not dropping Magnus’ hand.  
  
“I never said I didn’t like it, it was more of a nice surprise,” smiled the sparkly man. Alec regarded Magnus with love and care, more love than he had felt for anybody in his life, and was really thankful for the decisions he had made in order to share this small moment with him.   
  
They walked down the backstreets, trying to avoid passers by and possible Clave members patrolling the roads. They passed by the Shadowhunter Academy, and Alec explained to his boyfriend how much he had enjoyed his years there, and how he would love to send his children there one day. Neither Alec nor Magnus flinched at the word children, and both just smiled at one another when it was mentioned. Alec knew he wanted kids, even though he didn’t look like the paternal type, and hoped to the Angel that Magnus wanted them too.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec and Magnus had arrived at the Lightwood house, Alec looked around and saw no sign of Robert or Maryse anywhere, and knew they would be in the Gard, with some sort of meeting with the Clave. He pressed his old key into the door and pushed it sideways, opening the house to let them in. Alec welcomed Magnus into his childhood home and sat him down in front of the TV, whilst he went to snoop around his mother’s desk, hoping to find a record of where Lydia could be.  
  
Magnus was watching an Idrisian cartoon, that was evidently made for children, but he was enjoying it nonetheless. However, he was brought to attention, when a small Shadowhunter, about ten or eleven, was standing on the bottom step staring at him, with his stele raised.   
  
“You must be Max?” Magnus greeted with a smile. He knew that his lover had a younger brother that worshipped him, and had wanted to meet him at the wedding. Unfortunately he never turned up due to other things, and was now stuck in this awkward situation that Magnus was trying to make light of.  
  
“How did you get in? My mom locked the door this morning,” Max asked, lowering his stele slightly, he knew that sparkly man in front of him was no Shadowhunter, but he didn’t look like any demon he had studied. “What are you?”   
  
“I’m Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn,” Magnus introduced with a grin, which actually made the younger boy smile as well.   
  
“How did you get in?” Max questioned again, this time lowering his guard all together, stele back in his pocket.   
  
“I’m with your brother, he is currently trying to find something,” Magnus explained.   
  
“Alec’s here?!” Max asked in excitement, subsequently leaving the warlock and running through the house, trying to find his big brother. This made Magnus smile, and how much more fonder he grew of the young boy that he had only heard stories about; Magnus knew he had an amazing mind and a cute ability to setting things on fire, but also that he was determined to be just like his older siblings, Alec especially. He loved how Max almost jumped for joy at Alec arriving back home, and how he raced through the house determined to find him. Magnus heard a cry of delight and a laugh he knew only too well, rumble through the house.   
  
Young Max had found his target.   
  
The next thing Magnus knew, was Max was dragging his brother to the living room, where Magnus currently was, and all but jumped on him, wrestling him with a tight hug.   
  
“Hey buddy, take it you missed me?” Alec chuckled, taking his brother into his arms tightly, just revelling in having his little brother with him once again, it had been almost four months since Alec had seen him last, and hadn’t realised how much he had actually missed him.   
  
“I always miss you, you’re always in New York battling demons and talking to the cool Downworlders,” Max admitted, sitting down on his brother’s lap, like he was six again instead of eleven.  
  
“You forgot filling out boring paperwork and listening to mom and dad most days… besides, not all Downworlders are cool, this one is a murderous criminal,” Alec said, winking at Magnus and smiling at his brother.   
  
“Come on, I know he’s your boyfriend,” Max said. “I’m eleven, not stupid. I know you don’t bring criminals to watch cartoons either,” he told his brother, poking him in the arm.  
  
“Fine, you got me. I take it you two have met already?” Alec guessed, smiling at the warlock and the young Shadowhunter.   
  
“Yeah, yeah. What are you doing here Alec? You know mom and dad are in a meeting right?” Max told him.   
  
“Yeah, I know. And we’re gonna be gone before they get back okay? We’re trying to find out where somebody is,” he said, watching Max’s face fall a little. “Don’t be sad buddy, it won’t be long before I see you again.” Alec reassure him.  
  
“Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help?” the eleven year old offered, hope in his eyes and a smile back on his face.   
  
“A lady called Lydia Branwell. Have your parents ever mentioned her?” Magnus asked.  
  
“Yes, she’s the lady you were supposed to marry right? Mom told me, she said Lydia got moved by the Clave back here, but apparently she left. Dad said she is in the Mumbai Institute for a bit, just to work off her remaining time working for the Clave, and he said she can then do what she wants as a repayment for what happened at your wedding. But I don’t know anymore than that,” Max informed them, Alec and Magnus taking in every word.  
  
“Well we can’t just portal to the Mumbai Institute, too many questions that I don’t have the answers too,” Alec said, ridding his head of that particular plan.  
  
“Maybe we don’t have to go there at all? I think if we tell somebody who can get into contact with Lydia, we can find out where the Phosphor is,” Magnus added. “I think I could get Catarina there and back without question, she could go in, ask for something, and just ask a question about the Phosphor, find out where it is, and tell Azazel.”  
  
“You want to put Lydia in danger? Azazel has already attacked her once, it doesn’t mean he won’t do it again - what if he kills her this time?” Alec argued, standing up from the sofa and shaking his head. “That’s not fair Magnus, not after all Lydia did for us.”   
  
“What she did for us? You mean putting me through weeks of hell, getting into my head about you and how you were going to live your lives together, running Institutes and making Shadowhunter children! Leaving New York was the best thing she could have done!” Magnus shouted, making Alec flinch back a bit, and Max now moved into the kitchen - he had read once that warlock magic was unpredictable when they were emotional.  
  
“She let me leave her on that altar and come down to you, not a lot of people would do that! She could have married me just to prove a point, but she didn’t, she did the human thing and let me be happy!” Alec yelled back, standing his ground. Magnus couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now!  
  
“That woman caused me so much grief! And here I was thinking it was you who came down to me, me thinking it was all down to you, that you rebelled against your parents and kissed me! But no, apparently it was Lydia _allowing you_ to do so. If I’d known that then maybe I wouldn’t have let you kiss me, I would have let you marry her and be miserable for the rest of your life!” cried the warlock.  
  
Alec took another step back, finding that Magnus was now steaming, figuratively and physically, smoke was actually pooling from his hands in anger. Alec didn’t know what to say, but apparently Magnus had a bit more to add on the subject.   
  
“You did this for a publicity stunt! All of it, was for you, to prove a point to your parents! None of this was for me or my happiness, it was for you. You could have kissed any guy in that room, just to show your parents, but no, you chose me to get at me for all of those flirtations and drinks and declarations of love you never meant! You could have kissed Jace, but you didn’t, you chose me; to give me hope and and the fallacy that perhaps I could have another chance at happiness. Well that was the cruellest thing you could have done.” Magnus was now reduced to tears and a whisper, that last sentence barely comprehensible through tears and loss of breath through shouting. The warlock then left in a huff of emotion, storming out of the door, leaving a room full of fog and smoke, and Alec in disbelief.  
  
“I take it he’s no longer your boyfriend now?” Max asked, emerging from the kitchen into the now clear room, the last remnants of smoke ebbing away into nothingness. Alec shared a look with his brother, and ran out of the door to stop Magnus from moving any further. But by the time he reached the outside, there was no sparkly warlock to grab onto, just thin air and a wisp of smoke.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Magnus was stalking up the streets of Idris, trying to work up his magic to conjure a portal to get him out of the bastard city - but because of the wards around the place, unauthorised magic was forbidden. He was so angry at Alec, and he was also mad at himself for his outburst, he knew it was slightly uncalled for, but Alec knew that Lydia was a sore subject for Magnus. Even though he knows Alec chose him, it was still in the back of the warlock’s mind, that he almost wasn’t, and that Lydia almost took Alec from him.   
  
He felt like he should turn back and apologise, but he hadn’t realised how far away from the Lightwood house he had walked. Magnus was currently surrounded by trees and houses, like he was down a back street. He was manoeuvring his way around the dense foliage and the few houses that were around to come out to a clearing. The warlock set his eyes on a vast, green field, with a single house perched in the middle. It looked small enough for one, maybe two at a squeeze, but looked cosy and comfortable. Though tiny in stature, it looked like a home to Magnus, and the house had an eerily familiar feel to it, like he had been there before.  
  
Magnus decided to ask for directions, so approached the tiny house, with the tiny door, and the tiny windows. After rapping on the wood once, it opened to reveal a blond lady that Magnus knew in an instant.   
  
“Hello Magnus… what are you doing here?” came the voice of Lydia Branwell, the sole reason they were in Idris in the first place; and Magnus happened upon her by luck.   
  
“Hey… can we talk?” Magnus asked, a small smile on his face, the remnants of his tears now dry, and his make-up re-applied with a touch of magic.  
  
“How did you find me? I purposefully hid myself away from everyone. And I know you can’t track me,” Lydia questioned, a fierce eyebrow raised.   
  
“It was completely by accident, Alexander and I had a fight and-”   
  
“You had a fight?... Come in,” the blond said, welcoming into her small home. Magnus had to duck a little to avoid his hair hitting the door frame, but surprisingly, it was quite spacious inside.   
  
“Nice place… Was this-?”   
  
“Henry’s? Yeah, I inherited it from my father. It’s small, but cosy, and it does me well. Obviously I would have relocated if the wedding had happened, but… Anyway, what can I do for you?” she dismissed, stopping herself from causing Magnus any more pain than she already had.   
  
“Do you happen to have Henry’s Phosphor?” Magnus blurted out, not caring to sugar-coat what he was after. They needed answers, and needed them fast.  
  
“Why? What do you want with it?” the blond asked, shrugging off her jacket to reveal the dark runes on her pale skin.  
  
“Somebody wants it, someone powerful,” Magnus warned, looking at the Shadowhunter dead in the eyes, to show the amount of seriousness that was in his words, and so the blond could see the seriousness of the situation.   
  
“Who? Why would anybody want something like that piece of junk, it doesn’t even work? It like, blew up the last time anybody used it,” Lydia explained, trying to comprehend why anybody would want her great-great grandfather’s broken invention.   
  
“The Greater Demon Azazel wants to get his hands on it. Why, I don’t know, but he almost killed Alexander over it. I know you shouldn’t have to deal with this, but I’d hate for him to come after you,” Magnus expressed, concerned for the young woman, and how even her exceptional Shadowhunter skills wouldn’t be enough to get rid of Azazel.  
  
“You actually seem worried about this guy… is that why you and Alec argued?” Lydia wondered.  
  
“No… it was actually… over you. It was my fault, I was harsh, and actually a little bit cruel. I always thought you were after Alexander, but you both just wanted to do your duty. I understand that now, even though it had taken me far too long to realise it. I want to apologise for my attitude, my behaviour, and my actions that were aimed towards you. I’m a bitch, and I know I can be cruel at times, so I’m sorry,” Magnus apologised, genuinely feeling awful for his actions and the way he had treated the blond Nephilim.   
  
“I wanted to apologise to you too, when I was in the infirmary after my attack, I had time to reflect on the way I had spoken to you, and I realised I was also a bitch, and you had every right to be the way you were, because you were just trying to protect what was yours,” she smiled. “I hope one day that I can have someone feel the way about me, the way you feel for Alec. He’s extremely lucky to have someone as fabulous as you.” Both felt the need to share a smile, and a quick hug, Magnus retracted from the embrace with a bright grin, nothing could beat the feeling of forgiving and forgetting. “And as for the Phosphor, I can give you it, but I don’t know what value it holds for anybody, no matter how powerful,” Lydia said, moving around near a cupboard in her living room and plucking the rather large, white object out from the space and into the light.  
  
Magnus could see the Phosphor he once knew the tale of, the story he had been told by Henry Branwell, Tessa Gray, and Will Herondale; all told the warlock of the disaster of the De Quincey vampire raid almost a century ago. Lydia had passed the large witchlight to Magnus and he examined it, he could not immediately see any value of the object, and how he could possibly get it to work again. It went against his original thought that perhaps Henry had mended it, or even created a new one, the damn thing was obviously broken because it had a large crack through the middle of it, not enough to split the whole thing but enough to make it unusable. Magnus pocketed the stone and said his thanks to Lydia for the object, he wondered why she was so willing to hand it over, but she herself that the thing had been broken since the 1920’s.  
  
“Can I ask, why you kept it in a safe?” Magnus asked.  
  
“I don’t know, I guess for the familial value of it? I always felt the need to guard it, that was why I had the safe installed… without asking Alec. I knew he would get suspicious so I did it on the down low. But, I trust you to do what you need with it to get yourselves out of danger, it literally holds no use to me, so I might as well give it to somebody who needs it, and so desperately wants it,” she answered, giving the idea some thought and coming to the conclusion that family heirlooms needed to be protected. But she found no reason not to trust Magnus, she didn’t know why anybody would lie about a broken invention from London all those years ago.   
  
“Thank you for this Lydia, I’ll never forget it,” Magnus thanked, getting up to leave the house of the woman he now considered his friend.  
  
“No problem Magnus. But if you don’t mind, could you not tell Alec you found me here please? Or at least not tell him where I live? I just want to leave it as we did, friendly but no contact,” Lydia asked, almost begging with her eyes, she desperately wanted to be separated from Clave business.  
  
“Of course my dear, I will respect your wishes. However, can I ask why people think you’re in Mumbai?”  
  
“It’s my cover story, people think I’m there, so they don’t think I’m here. I just want time to think without duty getting in the way of things,” she said, giving a small smile, and Magnus could see the sadness in her eyes. Maybe the wedding took more of a toll on the woman than the warlock had expected. “I’ll see you around, maybe?”  
  
“If you so wish to see me, all you need to do is ask, I’ll be here for you, as you were here for me when I needed you,” Magnus replied, giving the woman a last smile, and exiting the small house. He now had the Phosphor, and now he needed to find Alec, he was doing a lot of reconciling today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So here's Chapter 8, I hope you like it and enjoy reading it. Please leave comments and kudos on this, I won't complain ;) Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	9. The First Time

Alec had taken to wandering the streets for the warlock, hoping to the Angel that nobody had questioned him or taken him to the Clave for being in the home of Shadowhunters. There was no trace of the sparkly warlock anywhere, he even tried to track him with the blue amulet around his neck that he hadn’t taken off since he received it on his wedding day. He felt awful for Magnus’ outburst, even though he didn’t think all of what he said was called for, he knew that Magnus was just upset and realised he should have worded his replies a bit better.  
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Magnus was stalking around Idris in a desperate search for his Nephilim, he had already received some funny looks from Shadowhunters around the place, and was now one hundred per cent positive that he wanted to be in Alexander’s arms, away from the place that Shadowhunters called home. He realised he couldn’t use his magic inside the wards from when he tried to conjure up a rage portal, but he couldn’t do anything as simple as track Alec because all of his magic was classed as a ‘Downworlder’ function, and therefore could not be used inside the walls of the sacred place of Idris, unless he had permission from a high-end Nephilim, more specifically the Inquisitor or even Maryse Lightwood herself.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Alec was now in the middle of Idris Square, currently scouring the streets for a glimpse of that gravity defying hair or a shimmer of sparkle from his outfit or eyes. It was like a flash of light that hit him in the face, Alec had managed to walk straight into his boyfriend with a smack and an “ouch” as both hit the floor, landing flat on their asses with a bump.  
  
“I’m so sorry-” Alec started, before realising it was in fact his warlock that he had smacked straight into.   
  
“Alexander… I do apologise,” Magnus began, helping the Nephilim regain the balance on his feet. The warlock clasped hold of Alec’s hand and was worried what would happen if he let go again.  
  
“Magnus I- I’m so sorry, you don’t know how sorry I am. I never meant for you to get upset or-” Alec pleaded, trying to not show any tears or things that could be considered a weakness. However, Magnus decided that he didn’t want to hear anymore of Alexander’s apologies, and just proceeded to kiss him powerfully, with so much emotion their teeth clacked together and they just held each other. It was in no way romantic or loving, it was more a kiss of passion and lust with a sense of apology and forgiveness; like the kiss was the apology.   
  
They pulled apart after what seemed like forever to both men, and just smiled at each other with pure happiness and bliss.  
  
“You’re forgiven Alexander, there is no need for apology or upset. But I do have an apology that is owed to you: I am extremely sorry for my outburst, and I couldn't be more sorry for filling up your childhood home with smoke. I hope I didn’t frighten Max, or you in any way. I love you Alexander and I am truly, very sorry,” Magnus said, admitting his feelings and liking the response he got in return. Alec kissed him once more, a slow and gentle kiss, this time full of love and happiness and pure ecstasy.   
  
“It’s okay, honestly. I realised that what I said hurt you in more ways than I knew, and I need to say sorry for the way I spoke to you. As for scaring Max, that kid sets fire to things constantly, I’m sure he wasn’t even fazed by it. And as for me, it would take more than the warlock I love to scare me,” Alec grinned, holding Magnus’ hand tightly and just revelling in the mutual forgiveness and love they had for one another.   
  
“I got the Phosphor,” Magnus told him.   
  
“How? Did you find Lydia? Where was she?” the Shadowhunter immediately questioned, asking every question that popped into his head. Magnus shushed him quickly with a perfectly manicured finger to his lips to silence the blabbering Nephilim.   
  
“Don’t ask me how or why, I just have it. It’s safe in my pocket and nobody else is going to get their hands on it. We need to find Izzy and get home quickly before anyone informs your parents that you and I are here. I don’t really want to hang around to see this play out,” Magnus chuckled. Both Alec and Magnus walked off down the roads, trying to find Izzy and get out of Idris before any of them were caught.  
  
*******************************************************************   
  
They found Izzy exiting the Penhallows’ and managed to sneak away to the gates of Idris, Magnus magicking a portal pretty swiftly and all three of them falling into Magnus’ trashed apartment. It was clear that the warlock had not been bothered to tidy up the mess Azazel had made when trying to murder Alec, and Magnus was soon to rectify this.   
  
Izzy left just as Magnus was putting the finishing touches to the living room, moving the couch to its usual place and mending the shattered coffee table. Both Alec and Magnus slumped onto the couch in tiredness, not sure what to do next. Alec knew he had to get to the Institute, but he didn’t have the energy to move.  
  
“How about I make you a portal?” Magnus offered, clicking his fingers and making a hot chocolate appear in front of himself and the Shadowhunter. Church had nestled himself into Alec’s side, and Chairman Meow was sat on top of the TV with his tail wrapped around him like a coil; you could tell he was Magnus’ cat.  
  
“I can’t ask you to do that, you’ve used way too much magic today. It’s okay, I’ll walk home,” Alec protested, getting up to gather his jacket. “I’ll let you know when I get to the Institute.” Alec went to kiss Magnus sweetly and bid him farewell, exiting through the loft door, entering the cold of the winter air.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec managed to get to the Institute in record time, it had started to rain and he only had a jacket on, so was ultimately getting soaked to the bone. He found Izzy in the surveillance room, analysing some demonic footage from the docks.   
  
“Hey- Why are you so wet?” Izzy asked her brother, regarding his sopping wet appearance.   
  
“Because it’s raining outside,” he pointed out sarcastically, determined just to get to his room and have a nice hot shower.  
  
“Oh… I take it you got Magnus’ place tidied up?” she enquired, going to her brother to take his wet jacket and pop it on a radiator. Alec gave a nod and just made his way to his room, needing to be out of the wet clothes so he didn’t get ill. The Head of the Institute could never be ill.  
  
He turned on the hot shower and hopped in, his wet clothes discarded in the wash basket, and just taking in the boiling hot water that struck his cold body. Throughout his lengthy shower, Alec’s mind kept wandering to Magnus, and how much he had done for him, not just that day but in general. He was ashamed of their bust up in Idris and even though they forgave each other, he needed Magnus to know how much he was sorry and how much he loved him. It wasn’t Alec’s initial idea to leave Magnus’ apartment, in truth he had wanted to spend the night and share something special with the sparkly warlock, but couldn’t muster up the confidence to tell him so. He regretted it when getting out of the shower and wrapping a fluffy towel around him, rubbing his body dry and into some warm, fresh clothes.   
  
Alec reached for his phone and attempted to ring his boyfriend, warning him of his coming over, but he just couldn’t quite do it. Alec felt that in the back of his mind, that Magnus would just laugh at him if he told him of his intentions, and he would trudge home to the Institute an embarrassed mess.   
  
Alec told Izzy that he was going out again, just nipping to Taki’s for some food, but couldn’t bring himself to tell his own sister that he was in fact, going to Magnus’ again. Thankfully she asked no questions, and Alec entered back into the void that was New York on a winters night. Fortunately the rain had stopped, so Alec had no worry of turning up to Magnus’ soaked from head to toe and forget the reason why he was there in the first place.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Magnus was pretty pleased as to how the day had gone, yes he knew that he and Alec had, had their first proper fight as a couple, but in a way he was glad that they had. He knew that relationships took enormous amounts of effort, he had learned that from every relationship he had been in over all of his centuries, especially his longer-term relationships. And he was happy that all had been forgiven between the Nephilim and himself, they had gotten everything they went for in Idris and came back even stronger than that morning when they had departed. Today was the day that Magnus knew that in a few years from now, he would look back on in fondness and if he was still with Alec in those few years, they would laugh about it, recollecting the day.  
  
Magnus was just about to settle down on the sofa and watch a film with the cats when a knock came from the door. He was wondering if it was perhaps Catarina or Ragnor, or maybe even Dot, just coming to check on him and have a nice gossip about their day. The warlock opened the door to find Alec stood there, smiling at him with a look of desperation in his eyes. Before Magnus even knew it, Alexander was on him in a second, kissing him with everything he had, even pushing him through the door and kicking it closed with his boot-cladded foot.  
  
“Not that I’m complaining Alexander, but what is this all about? You were only here not even two hours ago,” Magnus chuckled, pulling away from his lover’s lips with a smile. Alec looked crestfallen at Magnus pulling away from him, but proceeded to explain that something that he had been meaning to say.   
  
“Well I thought we could take the next step, you know- the, the-.”   
  
“Sex step? But why Alexander? Again, not that I’m complaining, but you never seemed to want-” Magnus started.  
  
“I-I know Mags, but, I dunno. I’ve been meaning to say this for a while, especially today, but I want to take the next step with you,” Alec said, stuttering over some of his words, trying to convey to the warlock how much he needed this.  
  
“And you’re not worried about what’s going to happen after this? Like, if we do this and then everything changes?” Magnus wondered, kissing Alec slightly on the corner of his mouth.   
  
“Why would you worry? Mags, there’s nothing to worry about, I love you and I want to do this, I-I need to do this, with you,” Alec reassured him, kissing Magnus heavily on the lips, showing the warlock all of the love he held for him in that one kiss. Alec pushed him through the door to Magnus’ bedroom, all the while shedding clothes as smoothly as they could while trying to get to the golden sheets of Magnus’ bed. Magnus pushed Alec’s jacket and shirt off of his body and Alec flipped them onto the bed.   
  
“Well that was smooth,” Magnus chuckled, all the while fumbling with Alec’s belt on his jeans.  
  
“Shadowhunter, I’m good at these things,” Alec told him with a smile, shoving Magnus’ shirt off of his broad shoulders and running his fingers through the warlock’s hair. Both began to kiss and roll around in the sheets, hands wandering and bodies touching. Magnus began to suck bruises onto Alec’s neck, right over his deflect rune, some of the purple marks blending into the dark mark and others not so much. Alec moaned into Magnus’ neck and just revelled in the soft and gentle touches, and the loving moans and sweet nothings that were being whispered into the Nephilim’s ears, enjoying every second of it.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Magnus woke up to the sound of bustling traffic outside of his Brooklyn loft. The sun was gleaming through the golden silk curtains and they lit up his lover perfectly. Last night was incredible, Alec had just given his virginity to the warlock last night, and Magnus couldn’t be happier that Alec gave up something so precious. Magnus heard a groan next to him, apparently the sun had woken Alexander up and was now faced towards Magnus, blue eyes shining up at him.  
  
“Good morning,” Alec mumbled, his voice hoarse from sleep. Alec rubbed his eyes softly and looked back up at Magnus as if he was the most beautiful thing of all.  
  
“Morning,” Magnus breathed back, quite content with just staring into Alec’s stunning blue eyes for the rest of eternity. “Sleep well?”   
  
“The best. I don’t think I have ever slept so well,” Alec grinned, threading his fingers into Magnus’ painted ones. Magnus chuckled softly, and just watched his lover breathing, having to double check that the gorgeous man before him was indeed real.  
  
“How are you so perfect?” Magnus blurted out, a blush rising on both of their faces. Alec almost giggled and buried his head under the duvet.  
  
“I’m so not… What time is it?” Alec questioned, a look of worry on his face.   
  
“Almost eight, why?”  
  
“Crap, I gotta get to the Institute,” he groaned, the Shadowhunter watched the warlock’s face drop and burst in laughter. “I’m kidding. Did you really think I was gonna go?” Alec joked, smiling at Magnus’ flustered face.  
  
“No, obviously not,” Magnus defended, loving the smile that lit up Alexander’s face. Magnus reached out to stroke Alec’s face, loving the feel of his soft pale skin under his fingertips. “I could so get used to this… Thank you.”  
  
“For what?” Alec questioned, rolling over properly, threading his fingers with Magnus’, interlocking them together.  
  
“For last night, I’m so grateful that you trusted me with something so special. I love you so much Alexander,” Magnus finished, kissing Alec lightly on his lips, making the blue eyed Nephilim blush and beam with happiness. “Thank you for giving your first time to me.”  
  
“I will be forever happy that I got to share my first time with you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, Chapter 9 here! We're finally getting through this whopooooooppooooo! This last section was taken from my previous Chapter 9 called Remember Me from my original fic, Malec Family Life. I thought that if I could get it as accurate as I could, then I would make you all happy. This chapter was from 2x07 and 2x18 from the TV series and I thought I could combine them quite well for my story. Thanks to all who continue to read my fics and please leave comments and kudos, lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	10. Little Predicament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge time jump here guys. 12 years in fact! I'm sorry for skipping out lots but I'm sure I will probably make some one shots for anybody's requests; especially the actual wedding!

**HUGE TIME JUMP HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!**   
  
  
It had been 12 years since Alec and Magnus had shared their first time together. It had been a brilliant night and they had now made talking and communicating in their relationship a constant thing, so that nothing like what happened in Idris would happen again. Sex wasn’t a new thing in their lives, for Magnus had been at it for a while, and for Alec, his first few times were awkward and a little clumsy but Magnus willed to help his beloved through it and now they were both perfect. However, Magnus had to admit, he was feeling a little sick lately…   
  
Alec was happy with the way his and Magnus’ relationship was progressing and he had to say it was improving his mood quite a lot, no longer was he the moody, angry Shadowhunter that stomped through the Institute. Now we was a happier Nephilim, with more than brotherly love in his life that almost made him want to fly through the Institute into his office to the horrendous amount of paperwork on his desk. That was the only thing that hindered Alec Lightwood’s mood at the minute, and that was the amount of paperwork that had accumulated on his desk since his increased amount of field missions in the past few months. With finding the Phosphor some years ago now and handing it over to Azazel through the authority of some of the strongest warlocks in America, Catarina Loss, Ragnor Fell, Tessa Gray and a few others that Magnus had met through the years. Even though it still felt strange, thankfully it had been the last they had seen of Azazel.   
  
But now Alec and Magnus were happily married and Alec wouldn’t change it for the world.   
  
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Magnus had woken up alone that day and had to run to the bathroom almost immediately, spilling the contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl. It was the strangest thing to happen, a warlock was getting sick, and an extremely powerful warlock at that. It was almost unheard of in Magnus’ warlock community and he was getting worried. He would have to see Catarina, she was an expert in sick people and warlocking.   
  
“Hey Catarina, can you spare a few minutes?” Magnus asked over the phone. She was always his first port of call and he hoped she had an answer for his weird illness.   
  
_“Of course Maggie, anything for you honey,”_ Catarina replied, carrying three warlock children through the supernatural ward of the New York General Hospital.  
  
“Are you sure? You sound like you’re struggling? I can call you later if you’re busy?” Magnus insisted, half hoping that Catarina would say she was okay to talk, because for once in his life, Magnus was extremely worried. _What if there was something was very wrong with him?_  
  
_“Of course Mags, I’m just dropping the kids into their beds now,”_ Cat said, literally throwing the warlock children into their beds, two flying and one making an ice slide to a safe landing with fits of giggles to their nurse. _“Now, what can I do for you?”_   
  
“I think that there might be something seriously wrong. I’m vomiting and just feeling plain wrong in myself. What if it is something incurable?” Magnus asked, sounding kind of like a hypochondriac but he didn’t really care, he needed answers.   
  
_“Well that doesn’t sound right at all. I think I will need to examine you in person. But I wouldn’t worry too much Mags, it’s probably something with a perfectly reasonable explanation. I will portal over when I get off my shift,”_ she told Magnus. Magnus mumbled a quick thank you through the phone and finished the call, he needed to get dressed and sorted out for Catarina’s imminent arrival, she could finish her shift any minute. He dropped Rafael a quick text as he hadn’t spoken to the vampire boy for a while and felt the need for a catch up.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec was feeling the need to be split into about four pieces, Izzy needed him for permission for missions, Jace wanted to spar with him to keep him tuned up for some unknown reason, Duncan needed him to sign off on some new weapons that had been delivered from Idris, and he himself needed to attack the never ending mountain of paperwork that kept getting bigger every time he took a sheet of paper off of it. Alec felt like he wanted to be swallowed up into a hole, he liked his responsibility as Head of the Institute but he did need a break. He wished he could call Magnus but his husband was probably busy with his clients, performing magic for those who pay him a lot of money. Alec resisted the urge to reach for his phone, but no, he had to resist the temptation of the sparkly warlock; he was determined to get that paperwork shifted by the end of the day so that he could start to see over his desk.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Magnus was just letting Catarina out of his apartment after his check up, when Rafael appeared at the door to his loft. Raf saw the look of shock on the warlock’s face and entered the apartment, shutting the door behind him.  
  
“You look like you’ve just had the worst news of your life, Magnus,” Raf informed him, reaching his cold hand onto his friend’s shoulder. Magnus almost flinched but stopped himself, even through his clothing, he could still feel the absence of blood that stopped running through Rafael’s veins a long time ago.   
  
“Quite the opposite actually Rafael, I’m just not sure whether to be happy or wary,” the warlock told him. “I’m pregnant.” The vampire stared in shock at his friend and was at a loss for words, never in all of his years had Rafael heard such news.  
  
“That’s incredible. Have you told?-”  
  
“Alec? No, not yet. How do I? The boy is barely into his thirties and I would be lumbering him with this… predicament. What am I supposed to do?” Magnus admitted, almost breaking into tears to his fellow Downworlder. Raf didn’t know whether to embrace the warlock or just let him have his moment. For someone who tried not to show emotion, and as somebody who almost biologically couldn’t show emotion, he really wanted to, needed to.   
  
“Magnus. Maybe you would feel better if you told Alec about your situation, and you could discuss it with him? Maybe he would rather like a child,” Rafael suggested, feeling a hint of sympathy towards the man who had helped him through a lot.  
  
“Perhaps… or perhaps he’ll leave me and never want to speak with me again and I will be left with this child, this… to deal with on my own. And I don’t know whether magic can fix it,” Magnus said, stifling his sniffles and letting out a small cough to choke back the tears.   
  
“Magic isn’t _supposed_ to fix everything, it is a privilege that very few have, and I believe that magic is there to guide those who need it, and your child won’t need magic every second of their day; because they will have love and care and warmth to keep them going,” Rafael told him, delving into the depths of his frozen heart to get out this explanation, hoping to get it into his friend’s head. Magnus took time to deliberate this and believed that his fanged friend was right, he had to tell Alec at least.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
Magnus was nervous about seeing Alexander. Extremely nervous. He didn’t know how Alec would react, and he couldn’t help but think of the worst scenario. They had been together twelve years now and this had never happened, they had always been careful.   
  
Magnus entered the Institute with a flourish, showing off his usual confident self. Most of the Nephilim didn’t even give him a second glance as they were so used to his colourful, glittery presence.  
  
The warlock made his way to his husband’s office and knocked once, then twice, the signal for Alec to know it was Magnus. Magnus heard a muffled voice and he entered the room, swinging the oak door open.  
  
“Hey you,” Alec greeted, smiling at his husband from behind his desk. Magnus made his way behind Alec and wrapped his arms around his Shadowhunter’s neck.  
  
“Hello,” Magnus replied, kissing Alec on his cheek. Magnus jumped up onto his desk and made himself comfortable.   
  
“What brings your glorious self here?” the Nephilim asked, double checking some paperwork he had just filled out.  
  
“I needed to talk to you about something,” Magnus told him, wringing his perfectly soft hands together nervously. Alec noticed the action with worry.  
  
“If you’ve redecorated again Mags, I won’t be mad,” Alec chuckled, taking a hold of his husband’s hands. Magnus laughed and shook his head no.  
  
“It is more serious then that my dear. I’m just worried about your reaction, is all,” the warlock admitted, taking a deep breath. Alec raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘try me’ and gave Magnus a reassuring smile.  
  
“Okay… what would you say if I told you that… you were going to be a father?” Magnus said, hesitating slightly, hands shaking. Alec looked as if he hadn’t heard properly, his mouth opening then closing again multiple times. Magnus looked incredibly sick and Alec’s eyes just went wide, realising what Magnus had said is true.  
  
“Are you positive?” Alec questioned, his mind racing. Magnus nodded and a single tear escaped his eye, running down his cheek. Alec wiped it away suddenly and enveloped Magnus in a tight hug, the warlock let out a sigh of relief.   
  
“I am so in love with you,” Alec whispered to him, nuzzling his cheek happily.  
  
Magnus let out a sigh of relief and muffled something into the Shadowhunter’s shoulder. “What was that Mags?” he chuckled.  
  
“You’re not mad?” Magnus asked, stroking his husband’s black hair.  
  
“How could I possibly be mad?! We’re going to be parents baby. Something I never thought I would be, something I always wanted to be,” Alec told him. The Shadowhunter stood up and picked Magnus off of the floor and into his strong arms; Alec span him around and kissed him fiercely.  
  
“I love you so much,” Magnus sighed happily, pulling away from the kiss and placing himself back on the floor.  
  
“And I love you more than life itself,” Alec replied, smiling down at his beautiful husband…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for lagging behind in my updates, I'm a terrible being I know. Hopefully this cute chapter helps and I used the final section of this chapter from my flashback chapter 'Remember Me' from my Malec main fic. Love you guys xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	11. A Stressful but Wonderful Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TIME JUMP! (I apologise for all of the time jumps, I know it’s confusing but it works with my story.)

It had been almost 5 months since Magnus had found out he was pregnant and both he and Alec were on top of the world! They would be finding out the sex of the baby in a few days and they were both so excited! However, as it turns out, when Magnus is most at his busiest, the Clave like to ask him to do jobs for him, like close rifts, kill demons, mend wards etc. Alec was one more favour away from him storming into Idris and demanding that they stop treating his husband as some sort of warlock slave. Alec openly voiced his disagreement with Magnus multiple times a day, but in his usual Magnus way he would fabulously dismiss it with a shrug of his sparkly shoulders or a flick of his sparkly wrist.   
  
Alec was shooting some arrows in the weapon’s room when he got the call from Jace, apparently there was a demon sighting around the docks and the coast and the Shadowhunters had been called to duty.  
  
“Did you get any info about what kind of demon it was?” Alec asked, grabbing his bow and a blade on his way out of the Institute with his brother and sister.  
  
“No clue, they just said it was big and black and flying everywhere trying to pick people off the street,” Jace replied, brandishing his seraph blade out of its sheath and holding it steady.  
  
“People? As in mundanes?” Izzy questioned with a worried look on her face, if a demon is trying for mundanes that could lead to the exposure of the Shadow World.   
  
“Mundanes. Apparently it has no regard for the world it belongs to, i.e ours and apparently isn’t fussy about what it eats,” Jace told her, running down the street towards downtown Manhattan with his siblings at his heels.   
  
*******************************************************************  
  
As they reached the place to where they had traced the signal from, and what they saw was not for the faint-hearted, nor was it for any mundane eyes. Buildings were being torn at by winged demons, hunting for the humans that resided in them, pulling them out onto the street, almost hunting them for fun just to gobble them up and swallow them whole.   
  
“Are those Dragonidae demons?!” exclaimed Alec, notching an arrow ready for anything.   
  
“What are those?” Izzy asked, her whip untangling from her wrist as she spoke and a seraph blade in hand.  
  
“They’re from Magnus’ domain, Edom. They prey on the weak and destroy anything in their way. How did they get here?” Alec explained, shooting an arrow in the direction of a particularly big one, catching it right between the eyes and watching it dissolve into fiery ash.  
  
“There must be a rift somewhere, Izzy, head down to the coastline, see if you can spot anything,” Jace instructed, throwing a couple of daggers in the direction of two Dragonidae demons fighting over a mundane couple. Izzy ran off in the direction of the coast, leaving the men to fight the remaining Dragonidae demons that were wreaking havoc.   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
A couple of hours later, Alec and Jace were just finishing the body count from the slaughtered Dragonidae and mundane alike, trying to count up how many humans were killed and how many demons had been destroyed. Isabelle was approaching them just as Jace was carrying a dead mundane woman to the side of the road, wrapping her up in a jacket of his. Alec had called for backup from the magical ward from the hospital and asked for plenty of sheets so that they could wrap up the dead with them. So far Jace and Alec had counted 27 dead mundanes and approximately 14 piles of Dragonidae demon ash, they would have to gather up as much of it as they could and analyse the DNA of each of the piles, hoping to decipher how many there actually was.  
  
“I found a rift! On the sand on the coast, it’s not too big but is big enough to let a lot through,” she informed them, avoiding stepping in some demon ichor that had accumulated on the pavement.  
  
“Who would open a rift to Edom? A warlock?” Jace queried, finishing his total of mundane bodies, now at 28.  
  
“Perhaps? Or maybe it opened by itself, they have been known to do that from time to time. A small shatter in another dimension and they can soon be formed somewhere else that isn’t shattered,” Alec debated, trying to think of a reasonable way that it was created, _perhaps somebody from Edom made it?_  
  
“Either way, it has caused enough havoc as it is, and 28 civilian deaths, I have no clue how you’re going to cover this up with the mundane press, there is no glamour in the world that can cover up 28 dead bodies and massive flying dragons that appeared from nowhere and started eating everyone,” Jace said, not pitying his older brother at all and the position he was now in.  
  
“I will no doubt be having words with the Clave about this and hopefully they will come up with a useful solution…”   
  
*******************************************************************   
  
...Were Alec’s famous last words. Three days later, Alec was facing the Consul in Idris, listening to them all complain about the destruction in New York and the stupid idea of a gas explosion that caused the deaths, and the images of dragons were from the leaking gas leading into the streets. Thankfully no mundane had been stupid enough to take any pictures or say anything to the news teams, and the Nephilim of New York were just hoping that now it would just blow over. However, the Consul were not that easily accepting, they wanted answers and they wanted them then and there.  
  
“How did the rift open in the first place?” asked Inquisitor Herondale, a stern look upon her face, especially at her grandson, Jace.   
  
“We’re not sure,” Alec responded, head hanging low and his feet shuffling under Imogen’s deathly glare.  
  
“Well do you have any assumptions or guesses as to how the rift opened?” one of the other Consulmen asked, his face distorted with question and confusion.  
  
“Again, Consulman, we’re not sure,” Jace replied, he offered his grandmother a smile but she soon rejected it with a raised brow as if to say “yeah, no.”   
  
“Do you know if there have been any more Dragonidae demon attacks since the rift opened?” Imogen Herondale asked, taking a few notes here and there.  
  
“So far there have been no reported Dragonidae demon sightings or attacks since those three days ago. Our main concern now is closing the rift, to minimalise the chance of anymore attacks,” Alec explained, sharing a grim look with his parabatai, knowing that news of this would to get to their parents and they would be lucky if they were not impaled by a seraph blade by the end of the conversation with Maryse and Robert Lightwood.  
  
“Simple enough: get the closest High Warlock to your Institute and close the rift. As far as I know, the procedure is simple and shouldn’t take much energy,” the Consulman from earlier said, folding his arms and looking pretty pleased with his decision. Alec’s face contorted in annoyance, they knew full well that Magnus was the closest High Warlock, and they knew he was pregnant, it was like they couldn’t give a damn about his beloved.  
  
“Pardon, Sir, but Magnus Bane is currently unavailable at this time,” Alec defended, glaring the Consulman down. Jace could feel a tingle of heat through his parabatai rune and he knew Alec would soon be getting irritated and angry.  
  
“I do not care, as you said, the rift is our main concern and must be closed. To my knowledge, only a High Warlock can close a rift, no matter the size, and he is the closest to the New York Institute. I suggest you make Mr Bane available as soon as possible to reduce the risk of more mundane deaths and the mundane world finding out our existence. Final,” the man growled, it was clear that that was his last word on the matter, and it seemed the majority of the other Consulmen agreed with him. Alec saw Jace try to make eye contact with his grandmother, but she purposely avoided his gaze.  
  
“I concur, I’m afraid Mr Lightwood, no matter the inconvenience and your relationship with Mr Bane, he must be the one to close the rift sooner rather than later,” the Inquisitor agreed, Jace looked ready to argue but Alec just gave a slight nod to the Consul and dragged his parabatai out of there before he could be arrested or stabbed.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
After arriving back in New York, Alec rushed straight to his and Magnus’ apartment, he didn’t really want to tell the warlock what he had to do, but he knew that Magnus would be forever mad at him if he didn’t tell him.   
  
“Magnus? You here baby?” Alec shouted through the apartment, he knew his husband was in the apartment somewhere due to the mess he had created in the kitchen, the question was where.   
  
“Alexander! You’re back sooner than expected, otherwise I would have tidied up,” Magnus chuckled, making his way from the direction of the bedroom. He kissed Alec chastely on the lips and went to move away, but Alec grabbed his wrist and pulled him back, enveloping his husband’s lips with his own.  
  
“What was that for?” Magnus smiled, Alec just shrugged and rubbed his hands over Magnus’ round stomach, he wasn’t as big as he would be at full term, but it was at the point where you would notice that he was pregnant. “How did it go with the Clave?”  
  
“I hate them and everything they do and say,” Alec grumbled, slumping down on the sofa, beckoning Magnus to him.   
  
“Well, I’m not a fan of the Clave myself but don’t you kinda have to like them?” Magnus asked, heading to the kitchen and cleaning up his mess. Alec noticed that Magnus was not using magic to clean up, meaning that he was tired and saving his energy; he knew he had to tell him but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. “What did they end up saying to you? Did they offer you a solution?”   
  
“They said that… the closest High Warlock had to close the rift as soon as possible,” Alec grimaced, getting up from the sofa and leaning on the breakfast bar Magnus had recently installed. Magnus stopped what he was doing and looked at his husband, he smiled lovingly.  
  
“Okay then, it looks like I’m getting my coat, you coming?” Magnus offered, going to the door and reaching for his emerald green coat that was hanging on the hook.   
  
“Magnus, you need to stop adhering to the Clave’s every will. They’re taking advantage of your magic!” Alec told him, he knew this much stress was not good for his husband or their baby. Especially since Magnus was so close to his due date.   
  
“Alexander, I will be just fine, it’s just a little rift-” Magnus started, before yelling in pain. Alec quickly looked over his husband before noticing the wetness collecting on the floor. “Alec...” And that was before Magnus passed out in his husband’s arms. Alec laid him on the sofa and instantly called Catarina, needing a portal to the supernatural ward immediately. Catarina had sent a portal and Alec carried Magnus through it, landing in a private room with Cat and two midwives ready for them…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ik this one was very fast moving but it was more of a filler chapter for the next one coming up, the birth! And I apologise for not updating for ages, ik shoot me, but life has gotten in the way and yeah, not a lot of writing coming out. I hope you liked this chapter, please leave kudos and review coz I need your approval to live ;) Lots of love guys, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	12. Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the finale!! I hope you all like it!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for being a terrible person and not adding this until like months after my last update. Lot's of stuff has been going on lately and writing just hasn't been happening. I'm hoping I get back into my groove now though and create some new stuff for you to read and enjoy!

**Chapter 12: Grace**  
  
Alec had had to leave Magnus’ room for a while, he couldn’t bare to hear his beloved scream like that, so loud it was close to shattering windows and Alec’s eardrums. The Shadowhunter felt the need to cry for his warlock, but he knew that wouldn’t help Magnus in the slightest; he was having a baby, and he couldn’t help but feel useless. Alec had phoned Jace and Izzy a number of times, hoping to get through to them; neither was answering and he wanted to know why. It was entirely possible that they were on a mission, but there was lingering doubt in Alec’s mind that said otherwise.  
  
He felt so useless as he paced outside Magnus’ room, sneaking an odd glance here and there into the window, hoping to see any signs of tiny life in the midwife’s hands or perhaps even already in a cot, wrapped up in a pink or blue blanket. Alec had read about supernatural births, and knew that they happened different to mundane birth; according to species, it could take a matter of minutes to a matter of days, Alec hoped for Magnus’ sake that it wouldn’t take him long at all, but as the clock ticked down, and minutes were turning into hours, Alec grew increasingly worried for his husband.  
  
Alec had called everyone he could think of, rather selfishly, just so that he could have some emotional support, Magnus had Catarina and the midwives, Alec was just stood worrying outside. He had even called Raphael, and even though he didn’t know the vampire well, he needed somebody right now, and he knew of his close relationship to Magnus.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
The clock was now up to four hours and Alec was still panicking on his own, outside of Magnus’ room; for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to enter, the pain his husband was going through was passing on to him through their love rune, it was almost vibrating, and Alec had never felt anything like it in his life.  
  
“Alec? Where is Magnus? Is he okay?” Alec heard from behind him, to the Nephilim’s surprise, Raphael had turned up as quick as he could and joined the Shadowhunter in the hospital.  
  
“Thanks for coming.. He’s still in the room, crying and screaming his heart out,” Alec shuddered. “I can’t bring myself to go in there Raphael, I’ve never seen him in this much pain,” he explained, not even looking at the vampire, but just staring at the cream-coloured wall.  
  
“You’ve gotta be there for him Alec, just go in and ignore the screams if you can. Magnus is your husband, and he needs you,” Raph told him, pointing to Magnus through the window. In all honesty, the pain of his oldest and dearest friend was affecting him too, but he had to kick the Shadowhunter’s ass into gear before he went in there himself.  
  
“I don’t think I can… I got him into this Raph, what if he hates me for all of this pain I’m putting him through?” Alec asked, scared as to what the warlock would do to him after his labour was through and they had time alone.  
  
“Look, either you go in there, or I will, Alec. Do this for Magnus, and do this for your unborn baby that could be here any minute, you do not want to miss the birth of your child. But most importantly, do this for yourself. You need to do this,” Raphael encouraged, placing a cold hand on the Shadowhunter’s shoulder; Alec turned his head to lock eyes with the vampire, he nodded and gave the immortal a small smile in thanks.  
  
With one push Alec opened the door and made his way to Magnus’ bedside.  
  
“You took your time!” Magnus shouted, scolding Alec for leaving him for so long.  
  
“I know baby, I’m sorry. I just panicked,” Alec apologised, taking Magnus’ hand and kissing it lightly. Magnus sent him a look as if to say ‘I’ll deal with you later’ and proceeded to squeeze Alec’s hand excruciatingly hard on the next contraction.  
  
“I’m sorry to say this but I think baby is stuck,” one of the midwives told them, looking with worry to her colleague.  
  
“And that means what?” Alec asked, concern riddled all over his face.  
  
“They’ll have to perform a C-Section, cut Magnus open and take the baby out,” Catarina explained.  
  
“I don’t want any scars Cat!” Magnus screamed at his friend, delivering the doctor a death glare so harsh she would never be able to shake it from her brain.  
  
“I’ll make sure you don’t get any scars Maggie, you’re just gonna have to bare with us okay? Let’s get him to an OR ASAP!”  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Alec was once again left outside Magnus’ room, but this time he had Raphael with him for support. The vampire wasn’t much for conversation, but his presence just eased Alec’s tension a little. Magnus was transferred to an OR at rapid speed and they had been in there for a little over thirty minutes, Alec knew because he was counting to sixty in his head repeatedly to try and distract himself from worrying. Rafael reassured him that he would be out soon, and Alec hoped that he was right, he was hoping by the Angel that his husband and child would be fine and out of the operating room quickly.  
  
Catarina popped her head out of the OR and gave Alec a nod and telling him that Magnus and the baby would be moved back to the room of which he originally came; Alec agreed to meet them down there. Raphael looked pleased for the Nephilim and was about to take his leave, when Alec asked him to stay.  
  
“You were here for me Raph, the only fair thing is that you meet them first,” Alec smiled warmly, from his memory it was the first time he had really smiled at a vampire, and hoped it wouldn’t be his last. He knew he was close to Magnus and had been since he was first turned, and that goes back at least sixty years; he deserved to meet their child.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Magnus was safely back in his original room, and Alec had hugged him tightly around the back of his shoulders, wanting to avoid his stomach so he didn’t aggravate any stitching. Magnus still didn’t look too pleased with his husband, but welcomed the hug anyway, and gave his Shadowhunter a quick peck on the lips, reassuring him that he was in fact okay. Baby took a little longer to arrive to the room; supernatural baby checks were extensive, and they were a couple of months premature - for a mundane this would be quite a serious case, but according to Catarina the baby should be home within the week.  
  
The couple were still to know the sex of their child, and were waiting anxiously to meet them, but Catarina was still running tests, needing to determine exactly what the baby was, whether they were more warlock or of a Nephilim balance, which would decide their path in life.  
  
Magnus’ eyes lit up when he saw Catarina finally walk past his room with a bundle in her arms. She smiled brightly at the couple and handed Magnus the baby, a little girl. She was a squirmy one, wrapped in a pink blanket, with bright blue eyes and wisps of dark hair on her tiny head.  
  
“She looks like you Alexander,” Magnus whispered, smiling and cooing down at his baby daughter, currently the happiest warlock alive.  
  
“She looks like a wrinkly version of me,” Alec chuckled, stroking the girl’s tiny cheeks, he had fallen in love with her instantly.  
  
“Either way, she is ours. Thank you for giving me this gift Alexander,” Magnus said, kissing his husband lovingly, nothing sensual or sexual about the kiss, just a lip-lock full of love and passion for each other, and a new love in their lives in the shape of a tiny human being.  
  
“Is she Nephilim?” Alec asked Catarina, hoping that his tiny little duplicate would follow in his footsteps.  
  
“Ninety-six percent according to her bloods, meaning she does have some magic in her, but she will become a Shadowhunter like you Alec,” Catarina smiled, secretly she wanted the girl to be a warlock like herself and Magnus, but she believed that the baby was a Nephilim for a reason, and she was content with that.  
  
“Who would’ve thought I would have two Shadowhunters in my heart?” Magnus smiled, not even talking to anyone in particular, just asking the question to the room, not expecting an answer.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
The couple finally let Raphael into the room, letting the man who stayed and supported them through the long seven hours of Magnus’ labour. The vampire walked in to see Alec and Magnus’ foreheads placed lightly on each other, eyes closed, just happy and content in the moment while their daughter had drifted off for a snooze.  
  
“She is beautiful,” Raph told them, announcing his arrival into the room.  
  
“She is, Alexander’s double,” Magnus commented, no matter how much Alec dismissed it, Magnus insisted that she was Alec’s twin. The vampire stayed for a while, but insisted he had to go, get back home before the sun rose, the couple bid the vampire farewell and just basked in the glory of their new baby girl.  
  
Alec couldn’t quite get over how quickly he had fallen in love with her, which was honestly in an instant, but he didn’t mind.  
  
“What should we name her?” Magnus eventually asked.  
  
“Didn’t you have a list?” Alec countered, not even lifting his eyes from his gorgeous girl in his arms. She felt so soft in his strong arms and relished this feeling, never wanting to forget it.  
  
“Not really, I had ideas, but none of them seem to suit her. She does need a great name after all, she’s a Bane,” Magnus chuckled, watching Alec cradle the baby was an image he wanted instilled in his mind forever.  
  
“You mean she’s a Lightwood,” Alec smirked, playing around with his husband. They both knew she would take their combined surname, Lightwood-Bane, it is legally both of their surnames after the wedding, but for reasons from the Clave, Alec was still addressed Lightwood.  
  
“I think she needs a strong name, something that suits her to a tee. How about Lyra? I knew a Lyra once, met her in Malaysia, sweet girl, strong powers,” Magnus rattled on. Magnus kept on listing names upon names for their girl, while Alec was trying to find the right one, and when it finally came up, his head snapped to his husband, and they believed the name was perfect for their daughter.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Catarina was just signing Magnus’ discharge papers when Jace and Izzy finally turned up.  
  
“And where have you two been?” Alec asked firmly, watching his siblings in disdain as they were both covered in demon ichor.  
  
“Mission. Banshees and demons… don’t ask,” Jace said, shaking his head. “Is everyone okay?”  
  
“We’re great. We have someone we’d like you to meet,” Magnus smiled, getting up from his chair to collect their darling. “Jace, Isabelle, meet your niece.”  
  
Jace and Izzy fell in love with the baby instantly, Jace especially, even though he wasn’t related to the Lightwoods by blood, he felt a connection with Max the moment he was born, and now he had someone new that he could love and protect.  
  
“By the Angel, she is beautiful,” Izzy admitted, getting lost in the little girl’s sapphire eyes.“What’s her name?”  
  
“This is Grace…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys, that's the end of another fic for me. If I get enough requests, it could be possible that there will be a future fic coming up in the next few months. And I know I've been absent lately, stuff has been going on and my heart just hasn't been with anything really, but hopefully this makes up for it? Please leave kudos and comments, they would be greatly appreciated, and if you would like another fic, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for sticking with me guys, you're awesome. Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, I sure did! Next one is coming up soon!!! Lots of Love xxxxxxxxxx


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